"Three Islamic State suicide bombers targeted a police base in Iraq's western Anbar province with explosives-laden Humvees on Monday, killing at least 41 police and Shiite militiamen, officials said.
The attack on a police station in the Tharthar area north of the IS-held provincial capital, Ramadi, caused a large secondary explosion in an ammunition depot, the officials said. Another 63 security forces members were wounded in the attack.
Hospital officials confirmed the casualties. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to brief the media.
Monday's attack resembled the massive, coordinated assault launched on Ramadi last month that allowed IS militants to capture the city, marking their biggest gain since a U.S.-led coalition began launching airstrikes against the extremist group last August. In that assault, the IS group also used Humvees looted from Iraqi security forces.
The loss of Ramadi prompted Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to order Shiite militiamen into the vast Sunni province, which was an insurgent hotbed during the eight-year U.S. military presence.
The Shiite militiamen have played a key role in pushing the Sunni IS group back elsewhere in Iraq, but have also been accused by rights groups of carrying out revenge attacks against Sunni citizens, charges denied by militia commanders."
"South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham opened his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination Monday with a grim accounting of radical Islam "running wild" in a world imperiled also by Iran's nuclear ambitions.
He dedicated himself to defeating U.S. adversaries — a commitment that would place thousands of troops back in Iraq, essentially re-engaging in a war launched in 2003."
---Associated Press, June 1, 2015
June 2, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above:
Former Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee Announces Presidential Bid as a Democrat
"Former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee entered the race for president Wednesday by calling for the U.S. to switch to the metric system, take an 'open-minded approach' to drug trafficking and consider negotiating with Islamic State militants.
With his announcement, Chafee became the biggest longshot among Hillary Rodham Clinton's Democratic rivals, who have a long way to go to avoid becoming historical footnotes in the 2016 campaign.
He did so by casting himself as an anti-war candidate who opposed the invasion of Iraq in 2003, but he quickly detoured into a list of policy proposals that are likely to be non-starters on the campaign trail.
Among them was refusing to rule out talks with Islamic State militants, a violent extremist group that has tortured and beheaded prisoners and opposition fighters as it has overrun parts of Iraq and Syria."
---Associated Press, June 3, 2015
Former Texas Governor Rick Perry Declares his Presidential Candidacy
"Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry opened his second bid for the Republican presidential nomination Thursday, pledging to 'end an era of failed leadership' and hoping this campaign will go better than his last one.
The longest-serving governor in Texas history when he left office in January, Perry made his announcement inside a steamy hangar at an airfield outside Dallas, in the company of fellow veterans and a hulking cargo plane like the one he flew for the Air Force."
"American Pharoah entered the pantheon of U.S. thoroughbred racing's all-time greats by winning the Belmont Stakes wire-to-wire on Saturday to become the first horse to capture the coveted 'Triple Crown' in nearly four decades.
In winning a seventh straight race, American Pharoah became the 12th horse and first since Affirmed in 1978 to sweep the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes."
"Turkish voters delivered a rebuke on Sunday to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as his party lost its majority in Parliament in a historic election that thwarted his ambition to rewrite Turkey’s Constitution and further bolster his clout."
"Acknowledging military setbacks, President Barack Obama said Monday the United States still lacks a 'complete strategy' for training Iraqi forces to fight the Islamic State. He urged Iraq's government to allow more of the nation's Sunnis to join the campaign against the violent militants."
"A series of bombings targeting public places and Iraqi security forces killed 20 people in and around Baghdad on Tuesday, officials said.
The deadliest attack took place on Tuesday night, when a car bomb went off near restaurants and shop in Palestine Street in eastern Baghdad, killing 10 people, including three women. The bombing also wounded 24 people, police officials said.
Several shops and cars were burned in the attack and police sealed off the blast area.
Earlier in the day, a roadside bomb struck an army patrol in Youssifiyah, just south of the Iraqi capital, killing three soldiers and one civilian. At least eight people were wounded in that attack, the officials said.
And two separate explosions near a vegetable market and on a commercial street killed six people and wounded 21 in western Baghdad."
---Associated Press, June 9, 2015
Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert Pleads Not Guilty
June 9, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above: Portrait of Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1999 to 2007
"After days of silence, J. Dennis Hastert, a former speaker of the House of Representatives, on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he illegally structured bank withdrawals and lied to the authorities about millions of dollars he had promised to pay someone for misconduct that occurred decades ago."
"The Islamic State group gave only three options for the soldiers and police officers guarding Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, when they neared it a year ago: Repent, run or die.
Many ran. Those who resisted died, often gruesomely in mass killings filmed and uploaded to the Internet, only fueling fear of the extremists.
The collapse of Iraqi security forces, which received billions of dollars in aid and training from the U.S. during its occupation, haunts this divided country today, a year after the Islamic State group seized Mosul and a third of the country. Its sectarian divides grow deeper as millions remain displaced, military gains have seen militant counterattacks and a U.S.-led campaign of airstrikes appears not to have changed the stalemate.
What can change the situation is unclear, as lower oil prices sap the Iraqi economy, the U.S. limits its involvement on the ground and the Iraqi people as a whole continue to suffer."
"President Barack Obama on Wednesday ordered the deployment of 450 more U.S. troops to Iraq's Sunni heartland to advise and assist fragile Iraqi forces being built up to try to retake territory lost to Islamic State.
The plan to expand the 3,100-strong U.S. contingent in Iraq and open a new operations center closer to the fighting in Anbar province marks an adjustment in strategy for Obama, who has faced mounting pressure to do more to blunt the momentum of the insurgents.
But with Obama sticking to his refusal to send troops into combat or to the front lines, the White House announcement failed to silence critics who say the limited U.S. military role in the conflict is not enough to turn the tide of battle.
U.S. officials hope that a strengthened American presence on the ground in Anbar will help the Iraqi military devise and carry out a counter-attack to retake the provincial capital Ramadi, which insurgents seized last month in an onslaught that further exposed the shortcomings of the Iraqi army."
"President Barack Obama ordered the deployment of up to 450 more American troops to Iraq on Wednesday in an effort to reverse major battlefield losses to the Islamic State, an escalation but not a significant shift in the struggling U.S. strategy to defeat the extremist group.
The U.S. forces will open a fifth training site in the country, this one dedicated specifically to helping the Iraqi Army integrate Sunni tribes into the fight, an element seen as a crucial to driving the Islamic State out of the Sunni-majority areas of western Iraq.
The immediate objective is to win back the key city of Ramadi, which was seized by extremists last month."
"The number of American adults with mixed-race backgrounds is three times what official census figures indicate, and the figure is rising fast, according to a survey released Thursday. But most do not call themselves multiracial.
The Pew Research Center survey found that 6.9 percent of adults in the United States were multiracial, based on how they identify themselves or on having parents or grandparents of different races. By comparison, the 2010 census reported 2.1 percent of adults, and 2.9 percent of people any age, as multiracial, based on people’s descriptions of themselves or others in their households. (Hispanics are considered an ethnic group, not a race.)"
---New York Times, June 11, 2015
Pacific Free Trade Legislation Suffers Major Setback in U.S. House of Representatives
"Led by union-backed Democrats, the House delivered a stinging blow to President Barack Obama on Friday and left his ambitious global trade agenda in serious doubt.
Republican leaders, who generally support Obama's trade objectives, signaled they might try to revive the package as early as next week. But that could require the shifting of at least 90 votes within either or both parties, a heavy lift.
Friday's setback was deep and personal for Obama, who made a surprise, last-minute trip to the Capitol to ask House Democrats to back him.
Not only did they reject him by the dozens, they were led by party leader Nancy Pelosi of California, who has often expressed deep admiration for the president. She joined in a tactic that even some Democrats called devious and cynical: voting against a favorite job-retraining program in order to imperil the trade package's main component: 'fast track' negotiating authority for Obama.
Hours earlier, Obama had specifically asked Democrats not to do that. But in a crowded House chamber, Pelosi urged her colleagues to ignore him."
"Islamic State militants attacked government forces and their Shi'ite militia allies on Saturday, killing 11 near the city of Baiji as part of the battle for control of Iraq's biggest refinery, army and police sources said.
Four suicide bombers in vehicles packed with explosives hit security forces and the local headquarters of the Shi'ite militias in the area of al-Hijjaj, 10 km (6 miles) to the south of Baiji town, near the refinery, sources at the nearby Tikrit security operations command said.
Iraqi government forces and powerful Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias face Islamic State on several fronts in Iraq, a major oil producer and OPEC member.
They include areas around Baiji refinery, north of Baghdad, and the city of Ramadi west of the capital, seized last month by Islamic State, the ultra-hardline Sunni group that poses the biggest threat to Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003."
"Hillary Rodham Clinton formally kicked off her presidential campaign on Saturday with an enthusiastic embrace of her potential to become the first woman to win the White House, asking supporters gathered at an outdoor rally to join her in building an America 'where we don't leave anyone out, or anyone behind.'
With the downtown New York skyline and new World Trade Center over her shoulder, Clinton offered herself as a fierce advocate for those still struggling from the Great Recession."
---Associated Press, June 13, 2015
The War Against ISIS: Kurdish Forces Moving Against Key ISIS-Held Syrian Border Town
June 14, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: Washington Postmaps of Syria and the area around the Syrian town of Tel Abyad
"Syrian Kurdish fighters closed in on the outskirts of a strategic Islamic State-held town on the Turkish border Sunday, Kurdish officials and an activist group said, potentially cutting off a key supply line for the extremists' nearby de facto capital.
Taking Tal Abyad, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa, would mean the group wouldn't have a direct route to bring in new foreign militants or supplies. The Kurdish advance, coming under the cover of intense U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in the area, also would link their two fronts and put even more pressure on Raqqa as Iraqi forces struggle to contain the group in their country.
Meanwhile, hundreds trying to flee the offensive pressed against the barbed wire fences separating the town from Turkey, as masked militants likely belonging to the Islamic State group could be seen as Turkish soldiers watched from the other side.
On Sunday, Kurdish official Idriss Naasan said that Islamic State fighters have fled from Suluk, a few kilometers (miles) southwest of Tal Abyad, and that Kurds now hold the town. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said Islamic State fighters had withdrawn. The Observatory said the Kurds are about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Tal Abyad."
---Associated Press, June 14, 2015
The War Against ISIS: Kurdish Forces Close to Taking the Syrian Border Town of Tel Abyad
"The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, aided by U.S.-led air strikes, have seized most of the town of Tel Abyad from Islamic State militants and pushed them back towards their de facto capital in Raqqa, a monitoring group said on Monday.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks Syria's civil war, said a handful of Islamic State fighters and their Arab tribal allies remained in a few pockets inside Tel Abyad near the Turkish border.
While dealing a blow to Islamic State, seizing Tel Abyad would help the YPG link up Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Syria. Turkey is worried about the risk of separatist sentiment among its own Kurdish minority in the southwest.
The Kurdish thrust into Tel Abyad came from both east and west of the town where it brought troops from Hasaka province in the northeastern part of Syria and from Kobani, northwest of Tel Abyad. But U.S.-led coalition bombing of Islamic State positions in the town played a decisive role in repelling the jihadists."
---Reuters, June 15, 2015
Jeb Bush Announces his Presidential Candidacy
June 15, 2015 (Monday)
Above: AP photo of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush during his presidential announcement event in Miami, Florida on Monday, June 15, 2015
"Vowing to win the Republican presidential nomination on his own merits, Jeb Bush launched a White House bid months in the making Monday with a promise to stay true to his beliefs — easier said than done in a bristling primary contest where his conservative credentials will be sharply challenged."
The War Against ISIS: Tal Abyad, Syria Falls to the Kurdish Militant Group, YPG
June 16, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above: AP photo (taken from the Turkish side of the Turkey-Syria border) showing the Kurdish YPG flag flying above the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad, Tuesday, June 16, 2015
"Kurdish fighters took full control of the border town of Tal Abyad on Tuesday, dealing a major blow to the Islamic State group's ability to wage war in Syria by cutting off a vital supply line to its self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa.
A senior Kurdish commander, Haqi Kobane, told The Associated Press that Kurdish units known as the YPG that he leads, along with their allies from the Free Syrian Army, were starting to clear booby traps and mines in the town along the border with Turkey. The extremists had been in control of it for more than a year."
"Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen released a video statement on Tuesday confirming the death of its leader, Nasser al-Wuhayshi, in an American missile strike.
Mr. Wuhayshi, 38, who had led Qaeda operations in Yemen since 2002 and was also the global extremist network’s second-ranking leader, was killed along with two other operatives, the statement said.
The group said that its military commander, Qassim al-Raimi, had been chosen as Mr. Wuhayshi’s successor."
Real-estate mogul and reality-television star Donald Trump said Tuesday he will seek the Republican nomination for president. He's the 12th high-profile Republican to enter the 2016 race, with more to come in the weeks ahead."
---Associated Press, June 16, 2015
Hillary Clinton Campaigns in South Carolina
June 17, 2015 (Wednesday)
Above: AP photo via ABC News of Hillary Clinton in North Charleston, South Carolina on June 17, 2015
Above: Charleston Post and Courierphoto of Hillary Clinton at Trident Technical College in North Charleston, South Carolina on June 17, 2015
"Today, Hillary Rodham Clinton returned to South Carolina where she gave a speech at Trident Technical College in North Charleston where the focus on her speech was on technical education. She said that technical colleges have a reputation that is often unfair as they teach vital skills to our economy. Clinton said that she would propose a $1500 tax credit for businesses who offer apprenticeship programs."
"Clinton is currently in South Carolina after swings through Iowa and New Hampshire following her official kick-off rally in New York City last weekend.
During an event today at the Trident Technical College in North Charleston, Clinton rolled out new policies to reduce youth unemployment and called for tax credits for businesses that offer apprenticeship programs to young people."
"Hillary Clinton called the family of Walter Scott, an unarmed black man killed by a police officer earlier this year, to extend her condolences, a spokesman for the Scott family told CNN on Wednesday.
Clinton, who was in South Carolina on Wednesday for a series of campaign events, spoke with Judy Scott, Walter's mother, before she took the stage at a young unemployment event in North Charleston, just two miles from where Scott was killed."
"Hillary Clinton appealed to the young and old looking to get into or re-enter the job market during her second trip to South Carolina since officially entering the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, saying America needs to reinvest in apprenticeship programs that will turn them into marketable and skilled workers.
'I want to be a president for both the successful and the struggling,' Clinton said during her half-hour appearance Wednesday at Trident Technical College in North Charleston. 'And right now, the struggling need more help.'"
---Charleston Post and Courier, June 17, 2015
The War Against ISIS: United States Failing to Meet Goal of Training 24,000 Iraqi Troops
June 17, 2015 (Wednesday)
Above: AP photo of Defense Secretary Ash Carter and General Martin Dempsey on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on June 17, 2015
"The U.S. will fall way short of meeting its goal of training 24,000 Iraqi forces to fight Islamic State militants by this fall, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Wednesday on Capitol Hill where lawmakers are already skeptical of the Obama administration's strategy to address threats in the Mideast.
Carter told the House Armed Services Committee that the U.S. has received only enough recruits to train about 7,000 — in addition to about 2,000 counterterrorism service personnel."
---Associated Press, June 17, 2015
Mass Murder by a White Gunman at an African-American Church in Charleston, South Carolina
June 17, 2015 (Wednesday)
Above: Rev. Clementa Pinckney, 1973-2015
Above: Daily Mailcomposite photo of the nine victims in the Charleston Church Massacre
Above: USA Today graphic listing the names of the nine people killed in the Charleston Church Massacre
Above: Washington Postmaps showing Charleston, South Carolina in regional context and the position of Emanuel AME Church within Charleston
Above: Associated Press map and graphic regarding the June 17, 2015 Charleston Church Massacre
Above: AP photo of grieving people in Charleston, South Carolina on June 17, 2015
Above: Charleston Police Department (via AP) document showing images of the suspect in the murders of nine people at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina
Above: Security camera images (via AP) of the shooting suspect (later identified as Dylann Storm Roof) in the Charleston Church Massacre
"A white man opened fire during a prayer meeting inside a historic black church in downtown Charleston, killing nine people, including the pastor, in an assault authorities described as a hate crime.
The suspect attended the meeting at the church Wednesday night and stayed for nearly an hour before the deaths, police Chief Greg Mullen said.
The shooter remained at large Thursday morning and police released photographs from surveillance video of a suspect and a possible getaway vehicle. Mullen said he could not offer a make and model on the dark colored sedan because investigators were not certain about what is shown in the video.
The victims were six females and three males, Mullen said Thursday morning. He did not give other details and said names would be released after families were notified.
But State House Minority leader Todd Rutherford told The Associated Press that the Emanuel AME Church's pastor, state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, was among those killed.
Pinckney, 41, was a married father of two who was elected to the state House at age 23, making him the youngest member of the House at the time."
At about 8 P.M. last night, a young man walked into the Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston and took a seat. Others in the church were taking part in a weekly Bible study and prayer circle. He 'stayed there for almost an hour before the event,' as Police Chief Greg Mullen said at a press conference at seven this morning. The event was the man taking a gun—the police haven’t said what kind yet—and shooting nine people in the church dead. He is in custody; at the press conference, the police chief showed grainy pictures, stills from security footage, and an image of his car, a black Hyundai, and asked for help in identifying him. Three hours later, there was a name: Dylann Roof, twenty-one years old, of Lexington, South Carolina. An hour after that, by 11:30 A.M., Roof had been caught. He had driven to North Carolina, and was two hundred and fifty miles from Charleston.
---The New Yorker, June 18, 2015
Pope Francis Issues Laudato Si, an Encyclical on Global Warming and Other Environmental Issues
"With a poet's lyricism, a former chemist's precision and a pontiff's moral thunder, Pope Francis recast humanity's relationship with nature in stark ethical terms, hoping to spur a warming, filthy world to clean up its act 'before it's too late.'
In issuing 'Laudato Si,' his much-anticipated encyclical on climate change, the pope on Thursday took an extraordinary approach to an environmental issue often framed in the dry language of science. Francis' teaching document is a melodic yet radical indictment, depicting a materialistic and wasteful society that is hurting the planet and its poorest people.
He challenges the world to stop pollution, to recycle and carpool and to do without air conditioning — and makes it a moral imperative.
'The exploitation of the planet has already exceeded acceptable limits and we still have not solved the problem of poverty,' he writes.
The pope's 'marching orders for advocacy,' as the head of the U.S. conference of bishops calls it, comes as the world nears make-or-break time for international climate change negotiations that start late this year in Paris.
'This is a seminal moment in world history because the pope now is the leading global voice on climate change,' said prominent Rice University historian Douglas Brinkley, who has written both on the church and environmentalism. 'The pope brings extraordinary clout connecting Christianity and humanism to the protection of natural resources.'"
---Associated Press, June 18, 2015
Dylann Storm Roof Arrested as the Suspect in the Charleston Church Massacre
June 18, 2015 (Thursday)
Above: AP photo of Charleston Church Massacre suspect Dylann Storm Roof in Shelby, North Carolina on June 18, 2015; Rev. Clementa Pinckney, 1973-2015
Above: AP photo of Charleston Church Massacre suspect Dylann Storm Roof being escorted by Shelby law enforcement in Shelby, North Carolina on June 18, 2015; Charleston County Sheriff's Office (via AP) photo of Dylann Roof, Thursday, June 18, 2015
"The man suspected of killing nine people at a prayer meeting at a historic black church in this city’s downtown area was caught on Thursday some 200 miles away in North Carolina, local and federal officials said.
After an intensive, 14-hour manhunt for the man who carried out a massacre that officials are calling racially motivated, Dylann Storm Roof, 21, 'was arrested in Shelby, N.C., during a traffic stop' shortly after 11 a.m., said Greg Mullen, the Charleston police chief.
The police here say Mr. Roof, who is white, is suspected of being the gunman who walked into the prayer meeting Wednesday night, sat down with black parishioners for nearly an hour, and then opened fire."
"The Facebook profile picture chosen by Dylann Storm Roof in May is thick with symbolism. It shows Mr. Roof, a scowling young white man, against a distinctly Southern backdrop: a swamp dripping with Spanish moss. His black jacket is adorned with two flags — one from apartheid-era South Africa, the other from white-ruled Rhodesia — that have been adopted as emblems by modern-day white supremacists."
"The Confederate flag flying at the Statehouse in Columbia became part of the Charleston church shooting story Thursday after the U.S. and South Carolina flags were lowered in mourning but the rebel banner was left flying at its full height.
State Sen. Clementa Pinckney, a black Democratic lawmaker and minister, was among the nine people killed by a lone gunman accused of committing a hate crime. The suspect, Dylann Roof, 21, also displayed Confederate sympathies in some social media photographs."
---Charleston Post and Courier, June 18, 2015
Above: Getty Images photo of the Confederate Battle Flag flying above the South Carolina Capitol grounds in Columbia, South Carolina on June 18, 2015
Above: Dylann Roof leaning on a car, a vehicle with a front tag with images of Confederate flags; Close-up of the Confederate Flags car tag
Charleston Church Massacre: Dylann Roof Charged with Nine Counts of Murder and Appears Before a South Carolina Judge
June 19, 2015 (Friday)
Above: ABC News photo of Dylann Roof appearing via video in a South Carolina bond hearing, June 19, 2015
Above: AP photo of Dylann Roof appearing via video in a South Carolina bond hearing, June 19, 2015
Above: Daily Mailcomposite photo of the nine victims in the Charleston Church Massacre
Above: Cover of the June 29, 2015 issue of The New Yorker, a cover honoring the nine victims of the Charleston Church Massacre; Political cartoon connecting the Confederate battle flag and the worldview of accused mass murderer Dylann Roof
"Stunned by the massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, South Carolina has been abruptly forced to confront an issue that has bedeviled it for decades: the Confederate battle flag that flies above the grounds of the State House.
The tension was on display Friday, while the American and South Carolina flags flew at half-staff and the Confederate battle flag remained at the peak of its pole outside the State House in Columbia and the N.A.A.C.P. renewed its demand that the Civil War standard be permanently removed."
7:15 a.m. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley says the gunman in the Emanuel AME shootings should get the death penalty.
9:56 a.m. Police in Charleston say the suspect in the church shootings is charged with nine counts of murder and a weapon charge.
12:15 p.m. Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. says a fund has been set up to help the families of the nine victims, as well as the church itself.
1 p.m. The head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is calling the slaying of nine people inside the church an act of 'racial terrorism' and says the Confederate flag flying on the South Carolina Capitol grounds in Columbia needs to come down.
1:42 p.m. Charleston County sheriff's Maj. Eric Watson says Roof is being held in a cell next to Michael Slager, the former North Charleston police officer who fatally shot a black man on April 4 as he was running away from him. The shooting was recorded on a bystander's cellphone.
2:27 p.m. Roof makes his first court appearance, with the relatives of all the victims making tearful statements. A judge sets bond at $1 million for the weapons charge but doesn't have the authority to set bond on the nine murder counts. That is left up to a circuit judge at a later date.
4:25 p.m. The chief prosecutor in Charleston County says he wants to talk to the families of the victims and review the evidence before making any decision on whether to seek the death penalty against Roof."
"Bill Maher’s gloves came off on Friday, as the host of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher slammed the right wing for influencing the warped worldview of Dylann Roof, the vile terrorist who shot nine African-Americans to death in a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, in order to, he said, 'start a race war.'
Specifically, Maher criticized right-wing media, including conservative-leaning news organizations like Fox News, The Drudge Report, and The Daily Caller, for helping to mold the racist mind of Roof. "
"Real Time host Bill Maher suggested on Friday that Charleston terrorism suspect Dylann Roof was a fan of conservative media outlets.
'We can never know why somebody snaps — but I bet you I know where he got his news,' Maher told senior Daily Caller contributor Matt Lewis. 'I looked at your website the last week. It was a lot of stories about black people. A lot of stories. Same with Matt Drudge. I think they present a twisted view. I’m not surprised this guy thought, ‘They’re taking over the country.''"
"A website with a white supremacist manifesto features dozens of photos of Dylann Storm Roof, the man accused of killing nine people at a church in Charleston, S.C., posing with weapons, burning an American flag and visiting Southern historic sites and Confederate soldiers’ graves."
"Dylann Roof, the man accused of killing nine people at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, purportedly said he chose the Holy City for his killing spree 'because it is the most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to white in the country.'
The statement is included in a 2,444-word racist diatribe found Saturday on a website called LastRhodesian.com that also includes dozens of photographs that appear to feature Roof. Several of the photos include symbols known to be associated with hate groups. The document and photographs have not been authenticated and it is uncertain whether Roof actually is the author.
However, the document’s language is in line with what Roof’s friends say he told them and what survivors of the shooting say Roof told church members before allegedly opening fire."
The Charleston Church Massacre: Services Resume at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina
June 21, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: AP photo of Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, Sunday, June 21, 2015; AP photo of Rev. Norvel Goff speaking at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, Sunday, June 21, 2015
Above: AP photo of church service attendees at Emanuel AME Church on Sunday, June 21, 2015; AP photo of Emanuel AME Church on Sunday, June 21, 2015
"The congregation at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal swayed and sang, prayed and welcomed the world into their sanctuary on Sunday, holding the first worship service since a white gunman was accused of opening fire during a Bible study, killing nine black church members."
"In his own words, Dylann Roof’s path from a child 'not raised in a racist home or environment' to the 21-year-old white supremacist who shot and killed nine men and women in a historic black church in Charleston last Wednesday evening began with the discovery of a website.
After the murder of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, in 2012, Roof claimed he was 'awakened.' In the manifesto he published to his personal website, LastRhodesian.com, Roof wrote that Martin’s murder prompted him to search for 'black on White crime [sic],' on Google, which led him to the Council of Conservative Citizens."
"The massacre of nine African-Americans in a storied Charleston church last week, which thrust the issues of race relations and gun rights into the center of the 2016 presidential campaign, has now resurfaced another familiar and divisive question in the emerging contest for the Republican nomination: what to do with the Confederate battle flag that flies on the grounds of the South Carolina Capitol.
And similarly to some of their predecessors seeking to win the state’s first-in-the-South primary election, the leading Republican candidates are treading delicately so as not to risk offending the conservative white voters who venerate the most recognizable emblem of the Confederacy."
"The embers of the Confederacy glow within the Republican Party. A century and a half has passed since Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse, but the GOP’s 2016 would-be nominees can’t bring themselves to say that South Carolina needs to stop flying the Confederate Battle Flag.
That’s a problem for what was once the Party of Lincoln as it hurtles toward the 2016 presidential election.
With the exceptions of Ohio Governor John Kasich and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the Republican Party’s prospective nominees appear constitutionally incapable of owning up to the fact that the Confederate flag belongs in a museum, and not on the grounds of the South Carolina statehouse. And yes, South Carolina’s place in the GOP’s primary calendar, coupled with the South’s dependability as a Sea of Red on Election Night, make it a seemingly tough call for the Republicans."
---Lloyd Green, The Daily Beast, June 21, 2015
Above: New York Timesphoto of Earl Holt III of theCouncil of Conservative Citizens
"The leader of a rightwing group that Dylann Roof allegedly credits with helping to radicalise him against black people before the Charleston church massacre has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Republicans such as presidential candidates Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Rick Santorum."
"The leader of a white supremacist group that has been linked to Dylann Roof, the suspect in the murder of nine African-Americans in a Charleston, S.C., church last week, has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Republican campaigns, including those of 2016 presidential contenders such as Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum and Rand Paul, records show.
Mr. Cruz, a Texas senator, said Sunday night that he would be returning about $8,500 in donations that he had received from the Texas donor, Earl Holt III, who lists himself as president of the Council of Conservative Citizens."
---New York Times, June 22, 2015
Charleston Church Massacre: Continued Calls for the Removal of the Confederate Flag from the South Carolina Capitol Grounds
"South Carolina activists on Monday stepped up their call for lawmakers to remove the Confederate battle flag from the state capitol grounds five days after a white gunman allegedly shot dead nine black worshippers at a historic church in Charleston.
The demand by U.S. civil rights leaders and local elected officials for the state to remove the rallying symbol of the pro-slavery South during the U.S. civil war follows revelations that 21-year-old Dylann Roof, charged with Wednesday's attack on the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, had posted a racist manifesto on the Internet and posed with the flag.
'The time has come to remove this symbol of hate and division from our state capitol,' said Reverend Nelson Rivers, pastor of the Charity Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston, South Carolina. 'The time has come for the general assembly to do what it ought to have done a long time ago, which is to remove this symbol of divisiveness and even terrorism to some,' said Rivers, who is black.
Many liberal Americans consider the flag an emblem of slavery but many conservatives say it is a symbol of the south's history and culture."
"Pressure on South Carolina Republicans to remove the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds grew on Monday, days after a young white man who embraced the banner as a symbol of white power was charged with murdering nine people inside their historic black church.
State leaders held a flurry of meetings to figure out what to do. Gov. Nikki Haley, who has favored leaving the flag where it is, was meeting with lawmakers ahead of a news conference announced for Monday afternoon."
"A bipartisan group of local politician joined activists and religious leaders Monday in calling for state lawmakers to remove the Confederate battle flag from Statehouse grounds after the death of nine people at a downtown Charleston church."
The Charleston Church Massacre: South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley Calls for Removal of Confederate Flag from Statehouse Grounds
June 22, 2015 (Monday)
Above: AP photo of South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley (Republican) during an address in which she called for the removal of the Confederate Flag from thecapitol ground of the South Carolina statehouse, June 22, 2015
"South Carolina's governor declared Monday that the Confederate flag should be removed from the Statehouse grounds, reflecting what she described as a new consensus that the slaying of nine black churchgoers has changed what the banner stands for.
Gov. Nikki Haley's about-face comes just days after authorities charged Dylann Storm Roof, 21, with murder. The white man appeared in photos waving holding Confederate flags and burning or desecrating U.S. flags, and purportedly wrote of fomenting racial violence. Survivors told police he hurled racial insults during the attack."
"Gov. Nikki R. Haley called on Monday for South Carolina to do what just a week ago seemed politically impossible — remove the Confederate battle flag from its perch in front of the State House building here. She argued that a symbol long revered by many Southerners was for some, after the church massacre in Charleston, a 'deeply offensive symbol of a brutally offensive past.'"
---New York Times, June 22, 2015
Charleston Church Massacre: Walmart Announces it will Cease to Sell Confederate Flag Merchandise
June 22, 2015 (Monday)
Above: Screen image (via Business Insider) from Walmart website showing Confederate Flag merchandise
"Walmart, the country's largest retailer, will remove all Confederate flag merchandise from its stores, the company told CNN Monday.
The announcement is the latest indication that the flag, a symbol of the slave-holding South, has become toxic in the aftermath of a shooting last week at a historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina. Gov. Nikki Haley announced in a Monday afternoon news conference that she supports removing the Confederate flag from the state capitol grounds.
Walmart.com currently carries the Confederate flag as well as attire featuring the flag's design, such as T-shirts and belt buckles."
---CNN, June 22, 2015
Charleston Church Massacre: Anti-Confederate Momentum Continues to Build
June 23, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above:
Above: AP map and graphic regarding former Confederate states and controversies over Confederate symbols
"The Old and the New South collided when South Carolina state Sen. Paul Thurmond on Tuesday became one of the first lawmakers to officially call for removing the Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse grounds, something that would be unthinkable during the times of his famous father, segregationist Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond.
In a speech timed to shape the debate for the anti-flag movement, Paul Thurmond took to the podium and spoke for more than six minutes, calling the flag an emblem from a war that is long ended and has taken on racist connections."
"One of the most prominent U.S. flag makers said on Tuesday it will stop manufacturing and selling Confederate flags in the wake of last week's attack on worshipers at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Reggie VandenBosch, vice president of sales at the privately owned Valley Forge Flag, said the Pennsylvania-based company came to the decision amid growing controversy over the Confederate flag, which currently flies outside the South Carolina state capitol in Columbia."
"As South Carolina legislators voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to consider removing a Confederate battle flag from the Capitol grounds, a groundswell against symbols of the Confederacy spread to other states, fueled by newfound support from conservatives.
Spurred by the killing of nine people inside a Charleston church last week, Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican, said Monday that the state’s General Assembly should remove the Confederate flag from outside the State House.
In Mississippi, the Republican speaker of the State House, Philip Gunn, a Republican, said the banner should be removed from his state’s flag. Matt Bevin, the Republican nominee for governor in Kentucky, lauded Ms. Haley and said that a statue of Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president, should be removed from his state’s Capitol."
---New York Times, June 23, 2015
Charleston Church Massacre Aftermath: Confederate Flags Taken Down at Alabama Capitol Grounds
"On the order of Gov. Robert Bentley, the Confederate battle flag which stands at the foot of the confederate memorial on the state Capitol grounds was taken down this morning.
Two workers came out of the Capitol building about 8:20 a.m. and with no fanfare quickly and quietly took the flag down. They declined to answer questions.
Moments later Gov. Bentley emerged from the Capitol on his way to an appearance in Hackleburg. Asked if he had ordered the flag taken down, the governor said, 'Yes I did.'"
"Hundreds of mourners are making their way past the open casket of state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, who is lying in state Wednesday under the Capitol dome a week after he and eight others were slain at a historic black Charleston church.
Pinckney, pastor of Charleston’s Emanuel AME church, and the churchgoers attending Bible study were killed by a white gunman.
The procession followed a paved path around the west side of the Statehouse grounds as photographers, videographers and other journalists chased after it, once bursting beyond police officers who tried to block their way. Some people walked quietly behind it."
---Charleston Post and Courier, June 24, 2015
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal Announces his Presidential Candidacy
"Gov. Bobby Jindal launched his long-anticipated bid for the White House on Wednesday (June 24), declaring himself 'running for president of the greatest country in the history of the world' before a crowd of more than 1,000 supporters at the Pontchartrain Center in Kenner.
With the announcement, the 44-year-old Jindal becomes the fifth Louisiana resident to make a run for the presidency, following in the footsteps of Zachary Taylor (only successful candidate), Huey Long, David Duke and Buddy Roemer. It also marks the high point of a career for Jindal that has always been meteoric: from agency head to Congressman to governor -- and now the first Indian-American presidential candidate."
"After weeks of setbacks, militants from the Islamic State group launched swift counteroffensives Thursday on predominantly Kurdish areas of northern Syria, killing and wounding dozens and setting off car bombs, activists and officials said.
The two-pronged attack on the northeastern city of Hassakeh and the border town of Kobani came two days after an Islamic State spokesman acknowledged that the group might lose some battles but would not be defeated. The spokesman, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, had urged militants to strike back at their foes during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and 'shake the ground beneath them.'
The early morning assault by IS captured part of Hassakeh, which has long been divided between Syrian Kurds and the military forces of President Bashar Assad.
The militants also hit Kobani, a northern town on Syria's border with Turkey that had become a symbol of Kurdish resistance against the Islamic State extremists. The Kurdish forces, backed by a campaign of U.S.-led airstrikes, drove the militants from Kobani and surrounding villages in January."
"Millennials, or America’s youth born between 1982 and 2000, now number 83.1 million and represent more than one quarter of the nation’s population. Their size exceeds that of the 75.4 million baby boomers, according to new U.S. Census Bureau estimates released today. Overall, millennials are more diverse than the generations that preceded them, with 44.2 percent being part of a minority race or ethnic group (that is, a group other than non-Hispanic, single-race white).
These latest population estimates examine changes among groups by age, sex, race and Hispanic origin nationally, as well as in all states and counties, between April 1, 2010, and July 1, 2014.
Even more diverse than millennials are the youngest Americans: those younger than 5 years old. In 2014, this group became majority-minority for the first time, with 50.2 percent being part of a minority race or ethnic group.
Reflecting these younger age groups, the population as a whole has become more racially and ethnically diverse in just the last decade, with the percentage minority climbing from 32.9 percent in 2004 to 37.9 percent in 2014."
"William H. Frey, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of 'Diversity Explosion: How New Racial Demographics Are Remaking America,' said the report shows that the white population is growing older and shrinking in proportion to minority groups, with whites experiencing a higher number of deaths than births. Non-Hispanic, single-race whites were the only group for which deaths exceeded births between 2013 and 2014. Minority children younger than 5 now make up 50.2 percent of that population group, the report found.
'This year is the first time the 0 to 4 population is minority-majority,' Bolender said. It was shift long expected: In 2013, the rate was close enough — about 50-50 — that young minority children were on the cusp of outnumbering white children, but now the number has decisively moved into the majority, Bolender said.
"Minority births in the U.S. are far outpacing deaths as the white population remains all but stagnant, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday, driving the country closer to the point at which minorities outnumber whites.
The country’s minority population increased from 32.9% of U.S. residents in 2004 to 37.9% in 2014, according to the Census, and four states — Hawaii, California, New Mexico and Texas — along with Washington, D.C., are now majority-minority. Nevada, which has 48.5% minority population, is likely next.
Non-Hispanic deaths outpaced births in 2014 for a third year in a row, something University of New Hampshire demographer Ken Johnson says has never happened before in the U.S."
"Millennials now make up a larger part of the population than boomers, according to the latest Census Bureau data.
People who were born between 1982 and 2000, classified as millennials, now make up more than one quarter of the population, at 83.1 million. This is compared with the 75.4 million baby boomers, generally defined as being born between 1946 and 1964.
Millennials are also more likely to be racially diverse, with 44.2 percent of them being part of a minority racial or ethnic group, which is reflective of the fact that the country now has a 37.9 percent minority population as of 2014.
And the diversity of young Americans overall is increasing, as more than half of Americans younger than age 5 are now part of a minority race or ethnic group."
"The driving force behind the growth of minority population is natural increase. Currently, there are 3.6 minority births for every death. Among Hispanics, the ratio is even higher at 6.0 births per death. In contrast, the ratio of births to deaths is currently less than 1 (.97) among non-Hispanic whites according to Census Bureau estimates. There are many more births than deaths among minorities because the minority population (with the exception of Asians) is on average more than ten years younger than the non-Hispanic white population (median age 43). This results in more women of child-bearing age and fewer older adults at high risk of mortality. Some minority women, notably Hispanics, also have higher fertility rates than other groups. High birth to death ratios produce substantial population increase. Between 2013 and 2014, 63 percent of the minority population increase came from natural increase. Among Hispanics, natural increase accounted for 73 percent of the population increase. Though Hispanic immigration remains an important policy issue, it is natural increase that is now producing the majority of all Hispanic population increase."
---Kenneth M. Johnson, University of New Hampshire, June 2015
In the 6-3 U.S. Supreme Court Decision in King v. Burwell, Key Obamacare Subsidies Survive
June 25, 2015 (Thursday)
Above: HuffingtonPost.com composite photo of U.S. Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Chief Justice John Roberts, Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Meyer---the 6 SCOTUS justices who upheld the Obamacare subsidies that were challenged in King v. Burwell
Above: President Barack Obama; AP photo of President Barack Obama (flanked by Vice President Joe Biden) speaking in the Rose Garden of the White House in the wake of the favorable 6-3 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in King v. Burwell, Thursday, June 25, 2015
"The Supreme Court sent a clear message Thursday that President Barack Obama's health care overhaul is here to stay, rejecting a major challenge that would have imperiled the landmark law and health insurance for millions of Americans.
Whether you call it the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, or in the words of a dissenting justice, SCOTUScare, Obama's signature domestic achievement is, as the president himself put it, 'reality.'
The 6-3 ruling, which upheld financial aid to millions of low- and middle-income Americans to help pay for insurance premiums regardless of where they live, was the second major victory in three years for Obama in politically charged Supreme Court tests of the law. And it came on the same day the court gave him an unexpected victory on another subject, preserving a key tool the administration uses to fight housing bias."
"The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a conservative legal challenge that could have doomed President Barack Obama's healthcare law, upholding nationwide tax subsidies crucial to his signature domestic policy achievement.
Obama strode into the White House Rose Garden after the ruling to declare that the law known as Obamacare is working, helping millions of Americans afford health insurance who otherwise would have none, and that it is 'here to stay.'
Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, wrote in the 6-3 ruling that Congress clearly intended for the tax subsidies that help millions of low- and moderate-income people afford private health insurance to be available in all 50 states."
"The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that President Obama’s health care law allows the federal government to provide nationwide tax subsidies to help poor and middle-class people buy health insurance, a sweeping vindication that endorsed the larger purpose of Mr. Obama’s signature legislative achievement.
The 6-to-3 ruling means that it is all but certain that the Affordable Care Act will survive after Mr. Obama leaves office in 2017, and has a greater chance of becoming an enduring part of America’s social safety net."
"In a presidency filled with ceaseless wars, unfulfilled promises, and electoral disappointments, President Obama is having one of the best days he could ever hope for.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Affordable Care Act, securing a much-needed win for Obama's embattled health care law. Across the street just a few hours later, Congress was set to pass a worker-assistance bill that the president will sign along with fast-track authority, advancing a crucial piece of his trade agenda.
'They must be popping the champagne corks at the White House this morning,' mused former Clinton policy adviser and Brookings Institution senior fellow William Galston. 'And why not?'
Obamacare, the chief domestic priority of the president's first term, again received the green light from the Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision upholding the law's insurance subsidies nationwide.
And as the chief policy priority of his second term, Obama has pushed for fast-track authority on trade deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. After some initial stumbles and hurt feelings within his own party, the final pieces of the trade puzzle were poised to head to his desk Thursday afternoon. (In yet another win, albeit a less monumental one, the Supreme Court Thursday also upheld a central legal argument for the administration's efforts to fight housing discrimination.)"
---National Journal, June 25, 2015
Terrorist Attacks in Tunisia, France, and Kuwait
June 26, 2015 (Friday)
Above: CNN map highlighting Lyon, France, Sousse, Tunisia, and Kuwait City, Kuwait---the three sites hit with terrorist attacks on June 26, 2015
"In a matter of hours and on three different continents, militants carried out attacks on Friday that killed scores of civilians, horrified populations and raised thorny questions about the evolving nature of international terrorism and what can be done to fight it.
On the surface, the attacks appeared to be linked only by timing.
In France, a man stormed an American-owned chemical plant, decapitated one person and apparently tried to blow up the facility. In Tunisia, a gunman drew an assault rifle from a beach umbrella and killed at least 38 people at a seaside resort. And in Kuwait, a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque during communal prayers, killing at least 25 Shiite worshipers."
Obergefell v. Hodges: In a 5-4 Decision, the United States Supreme Court Declares Same-Sex Marriage to be Legal Nationwide
June 26, 2015 (Friday)
Above: HuffingtonPost.com composite photo of U.S. Supreme Court justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Anthony Kennedy, the five justices who constituted the majority that declared, in Obergefell v. Hodges, that same-sex marriage is legal nationwide in the United States
Above: AP photos of the crowd in front of the United States Supreme Court Building on Friday, June 26, 2015--the day that the nation's highest court, in its Obergefell v. Hodges decision, proclaimed same-sex marriage to be legal nationwide in the United States of America
"Same-sex couples won the right to marry nationwide Friday as a divided Supreme Court handed a crowning victory to the gay rights movement, setting off a jubilant cascade of long-delayed weddings in states where they had been forbidden."
"In a long-sought victory for the gay rights movement, the Supreme Court ruled by a 5-to-4 vote on Friday that the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage."
"The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the U.S. Constitution provides same-sex couples the right to marry, handing a historic triumph to the American gay rights movement.
The court ruled 5-4 that the Constitution's guarantees of due process and equal protection under the law mean that states cannot ban same-sex marriages. With the landmark ruling, gay marriage becomes legal in all 50 states.
Immediately after the decision, same-sex couples in many of the states where gay marriage had been banned headed to county clerks' offices for marriage licenses as officials in several states said they would respect the ruling.
President Barack Obama, appearing in the White House Rose Garden, hailed the ruling as a milestone in American justice that arrived 'like a thunderbolt.'
'This ruling is a victory for America,' said Obama, the first sitting president to support gay marriage. 'This decision affirms what millions of Americans already believe in their hearts. When all Americans are treated as equal, we are all more free.'"
"The Supreme Court declared by a margin of 5 to 4 Friday that states must license same-sex marriages and recognize similar unions from other states, effectively ending a long legal battle over the marriage rights for gays and lesbians."
"To the list of landmark Supreme Court decisions reaffirming the power and the scope of the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law — from Brown v. Board of Education to Loving v. Virginia to United States v. Windsor — we can now add Obergefell v. Hodges.
In a profound and inspiring opinion expanding human rights across America, and bridging the nation’s past to its present, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote: 'The right to marry is a fundamental right inherent in the liberty of the person, and under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment couples of the same-sex may not be deprived of that right and that liberty.'
As news of the ruling came out on Friday morning, opponents of same-sex marriage struggled to fathom how the country they thought they understood could so rapidly pass them by. But in fact the court’s decision in Obergefell fits comfortably within the arc of American legal history."
---The New York Times Editorial Board, June 26, 2015
"No, the sky is not falling — not yet, anyway — but with the Supreme Court ruling constitutionalizing same-sex marriage, the ground under our feet has shifted tectonically.
It is hard to overstate the significance of the Obergefell decision — and the seriousness of the challenges it presents to orthodox Christians and other social conservatives. Voting Republican and other failed culture war strategies are not going to save us now.
Discerning the meaning of the present moment requires sobriety, precisely because its radicalism requires of conservatives a realistic sense of how weak our position is in post-Christian America."
----Rod Dreher, at Time, June 26, 2015
Above: Ann Coulter Twitter post, 5:08 pm (cst), June 26, 2015
Charleston Church Massacre: President Obama Delivers Eulogy for State Senator Clementa Pinckney
"President Obama delivered a stirring eulogy and meditation on the nature of grace at the funeral of Rev. Clementa Pinckney Friday, one week after the pastor and eight others were gunned down in a church.
For a little over 30 minutes, Obama traded his typical even tone for a more rousing preacherly style, bringing the crowd of thousands at College of Charleston’s TD Arena, to its feet again and again. At one point, he even sang 'Amazing Grace,' a hymn written by a reformed slave-trader who converted to Christianity.
Though the touchstone of his remarks was Pinckney, Obama blended personal remembrances with calls for political renewal and a recurring theological discussion of grace, evoking the very kinds of sermons an AME pastor might give."
"President Barack Obama used his eulogy for a slain pastor to deliver an unvarnished lecture on America's racial history Friday, and then boldly sang 'Amazing Grace,' a spiritual meant to summon hope in the darkest of times.
Obama also called for gun control and efforts to eliminate poverty and job discrimination, and said the Confederate battle flag — long a symbol of Southern pride — must be removed from places of honor."
---Associated Press, June 26, 2015
Above: President Barack Obama; AP photo of The White House lit up with rainbow colors hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rendered its decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, the decision that legalized same-sex marriage, Friday, June 26, 2015
"On Friday morning, President Obama stood in the Rose Garden exalting the 'thunderbolt' of justice that had come from the Supreme Court, which guaranteed the right of marriage to gay and lesbian couples after many spent decades in often lonely, perilous activism.
About five hours later, leaning into the microphone at the memorial for the late South Carolina state senator and pastor Clementa Pinckney, Obama sang alone the opening lines of 'Amazing Grace,' before a crowd of nearly 6,000 rose to its feet to join him in an extraordinary ending to a eulogy that lamented racial hatred but drew on what Obama called the grace of God to predict its eventual defeat.
Rarely has a single day so completely encapsulated the emotional peaks and troughs of the presidency of Barack Obama. He sought to draw the moments together with a phrase he has employed in the past, using variations to argue that the creation of a 'more perfect union' sometimes happens in unexpected ways with unexpected speed."
"The Confederate flag was temporarily removed from the front of the South Carolina Statehouse on Saturday when a woman climbed the flagpole and — despite calls by police to get down — removed the banner.
Bree Newsome, 30, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was about halfway up the more than 30-foot steel flagpole just after dawn Saturday when officers of the South Carolina Bureau of Protective Services told her to get down. Instead, she continued climbing to the top and removed the banner.
She and a man who had climbed over a four-foot wrought-iron fence to get to the flag were arrested.
The flag, which is protected by state law, was raised about 45 minutes later. Flag supporters planned a rally at the monument later Saturday."
---Associated Press, June 27, 2015
Culture War: A Rally in Alabama in Support of the Confederate Flag
"Confederate flag supporters today gathered at the the state Capitol to voice their outrage at Gov. Robert Bentley's decision to remove Civil War flags from the statehouse grounds.
The crowd of about 300 -- some wearing Confederate uniforms -- waved the flag and sang a chorus of 'I Wish I Was in Dixie.'
Event organizer Mike Williams told the Associated Press he encourages anyone organizing similar events in southern states to keep rallies 'about heritage and not hate.'
'We're here to protest Gov. Bentley taking our flag off the monument,' said Dan Williams of Ashville."
"An exclusive News-5 Strategy Poll shows 54-percent of Alabamians say let the flag fly at the capitol. 46-percent support the Governor taking it down."
---WKRG.com, June 26, 2015
"The news-5/Strategy Poll shows a sharp racial divide on the issue. Only 17-percent of blacks say fly the flag, compared to 74-percent of white Alabamians."
"A cascade of events suggests that 2015 could be remembered as a Liberal Spring: the moment when deeply divisive and consuming questions of race, sexuality and broadened access to health care were settled in quick succession, and social tolerance was cemented as a cornerstone of American public life.
Yet what appears, in headlines and celebrations across the country, to represent an unalloyed victory for Democrats, in which lawmakers and judges alike seemed to give in to the leftward shift of public opinion, may contain an opening for the Republican Party to move beyond losing battles and seemingly lost causes.
Conservatives have, in short order, endured a series of setbacks on ideas that, for some on the right, are definitional: that marriage is between a man and a woman, that Southern heritage and its symbols are to be unambivalently revered and that the federal government should play a limited role in the lives of Americans.
Remarkably, some of these verities have been challenged not by liberals but by figures from the right.
The past week and the month that preceded it have been nothing short of a rout in the culture wars. Bruce Jenner, the famed Olympian, became Caitlyn Jenner in the most prominent moment yet for transgender people. The killings of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, S.C., at once rendered the Confederate battle flag unsuitable for government-sanctioned display. And Friday’s legalization of same-sex marriage nationwide elevated a community that had been consigned to the shadows for centuries of American life.
But even as conservatives appear under siege, some Republicans predict that this moment will be remembered as an effective wiping of the slate before the nation begins focusing in earnest on the presidential race."
---Jonathan Martin, The New York Times, June 27, 2015
"Across the cultural landscape, the national consensus is evolving rapidly, epitomized by this year’s convulsions of celebrity, social issues and politics — including the acceptance of Caitlyn Jenner’s gender identity, Pope Francis’s climate-change decree and the widespread shunning of the Confederate flag.
Then came Friday’s landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage. As rainbow colors bathed the White House and other landmarks in celebration, the entire field of Republican presidential candidates condemned the ruling."
---Washington Post, June 27, 2015
SpaceX Rocket Explodes En Route to the International Space Station
June 28, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: AP photo of an unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on June 28, 2015; AP photo of an unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket disintegrating while en route to the International Space Station, Sunday, June 28, 2015
"An unmanned SpaceX rocket carrying supplies and a first-of-its-kind docking port to the International Space Station broke apart Sunday shortly after liftoff. It was a severe blow to NASA, still reeling from previous failed shipments.
The accident happened about 2 1/2 minutes into the flight from Cape Canaveral, Florida. A billowing white cloud emerged in the sky, growing bigger and bigger, then fiery plumes shot out of where the rocket was supposed to be, and pieces could be seen falling into the Atlantic. More than 5,200 pounds of space station cargo were on board, including the first docking port designed for future commercial crew capsules."
---Associated Press, June 28, 2015
Conservative Reactions to Obergefell: Roy Moore and Others Take to the Pulpit
"At First Baptist Dallas, where the pulpit was adorned Sunday with red, white and blue bunting to honor the Fourth of July, the pastor called the Supreme Court's gay marriage ruling 'an affront in the face of Almighty God.'
The iconic rainbow colors that bathed the White House Friday night after the court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide represent 'depravity, degradation and what the Bible calls sexual perversion,' the Rev. Robert Jeffress said.
'But we are not discouraged,' Jeffress said. 'We are not going to be silenced. This is a great opportunity for our church to share the truth and love of Jesus Christ and we are going to do it.'
On the first Sunday after the high court ruling, theological conservatives grappled with their new status as what the Southern Baptists call 'a moral minority' on marriage. Ministers were defiant about publicly upholding their views, and warned church members to prepare themselves for a rough time ahead.
'Welcome to the new world. It's just changed for you Christians. You are going to be persecuted,' Alabama's Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore said from the pulpit at the Kimberly Church of God, in Kimberly, Ala.
Moore, who fought a losing battle to keep a Ten Commandments monument he erected inside Alabama's state judicial building, said the decision went against the laws of nature."
---Associated Press, June 28, 2015
Greece Announces Emergency Banking Policies as Financial Crisis Builds
June 28, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: Prime Minister of Greece Alexis Tsipras; Map of Greece
"Greece will keep its banks closed on Monday and place restrictions on the withdrawal and transfer of money, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said in a televised address on Sunday night, as Athens tries to avert a financial collapse.
The government’s decision to close banks temporarily and impose other so-called capital controls — and to keep the stock market closed on Monday — came hours after the European Central Bank said it would not expand an emergency loan program that has been propping up Greek banks in recent weeks while the government was trying to reach a new debt deal with international creditors.
The debt negotiations broke down over the weekend after Mr. Tsipras said he would let the Greek people decide whether to accept the creditors’ latest offer. That referendum vote is to be held next Sunday, after the current bailout program will have expired.
Mr. Tsipras in his televised address criticized the European Central Bank for declining to increase its emergency loans to Greek banks."
---New York Times, June 28, 2015
The Greek Financial Crisis Continues
June 29, 2015 (Monday)
Above: AP photo of several elderly people outside a closed bank in Thessaloniki, Greece on June 29, 2015
"Anxious pensioners swarmed closed bank branches Monday and long lines snaked outside ATMs as Greeks endured the first day of serious controls on their daily economic lives ahead of a July 5 referendum that could determine whether the country has to ditch the euro currency and return to the drachma.
As strict capital controls took root following Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' surprise weekend decision to call a referendum on international creditors' latest economic proposals, Greece's population tried to fathom the sheer scale of the impact on their day-to-day existence.
Following a breakdown in talks between Greece and its creditors, the country is in the midst of the one of the most acute financial crises seen anywhere in the world in years. It's running out of time to get the money it needs to stave off bankruptcy.
That has stoked fears of a crippling bank run, a messy Greek debt default and an exit from the euro. As a result, the country's government imposed strict capital controls, none more onerous than a daily allowance of a measly 60 euros ($67) at the ATM."
---Associated Press, June 29, 2015
Roy Moore Says Alabama Probate Judges Don't Have to Issue Marriage Licenses Immediately for Same-Sex Couples
June 29, 2015 (Monday)
Above: AL.com photo of Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore in Montgomery, Alabama, Monday, June 29, 2015
"At first today, Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore said a state supreme court order effectively kept probate judges from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples for 25 days.
Moore, however, later backtracked.
'What the order means is that within that 25-day period no (probate judge) has to issue a marriage license to a same sex couple,' Moore said.
Moore said that if he implied that the order prohibited the issuing of marriage license to same-sex couples then he misspoke."
"The country’s last major pockets of resistance to same-sex marriage were rapidly shrinking on Monday as officials in states across the South, citing the rule of law, softened their defiance and began offering marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples.
Here in a suburb of New Orleans, Alesia LeBoeuf’s hands were shaking moments after she and her partner, Celeste Autin, became the first same-sex couple to receive a marriage license in Louisiana.
'I’m just speechless,' Ms. LeBoeuf said. 'I never thought I’d see the day.'
Louisiana was the last holdout, the only state where no same-sex licenses were issued on Friday after the Supreme Court ruled that gay men and lesbians had a constitutional right to marry."
---New York Times, June 29, 2015
NBC Fires GOP Presidential Candidate Donald Trump for his Degrading Comments About Mexican Immigrants
June 29, 2015 (Monday)
Above: AP photo of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Chicago, Illinois, June 29, 2015
"NBC said Monday that it is ending its business relationship with mogul and GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump because of comments he made about Mexican immigrants during the announcement of his campaign.
The network said it would no longer air the annual Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants, which had been a joint venture between the company and Trump. Miss USA has aired on NBC since 2003, and this year's edition was set for July 12."
---Associated Press, June 29, 2015
The Dow Loses 350 Points
June 29, 2015 (Monday)
Above: Reuters chart showing the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing 350 points and closing at 17,596 on June 29, 2015
Small Clash in Columbia, South Carolina Over the Confederate Battle Flag
"An Irmo man was arrested after a fight broke out over the Confederate flag in front of the State House Monday night, officials say.
Nicholas Thompson, 25, was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after confronting a crowd protesting the Confederate flag, South Carolina Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Sherri Iacobelli said in a statement released Monday night.
The department’s Bureau of Protective Services reported that around 7:15 p.m. Monday, about 15 vehicles with pro-flag supporters pulled up in front of the State House and stopped in the middle of Gervais Street. About eight to 10 people then got out of the vehicles and began to engage in an altercation with a crowd of about 30 gathered near the Confederate Memorial to protest the flag, Iacobelli said.
BPS and additional law enforcement officers were able to contain the situation. The SC Highway Patrol, University of South Carolina Police and Columbia Police Department responded to the scene as well with about 50 officers in all."
GOP Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Tweets Anti-Immigrant Sentiment Against Mexico
June 30, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above: Donald J. Trump Twitter post, 7:35 am (cst), June 30, 2015
Above: :Donald J. Trump Twitter post, 7:57 am (cst), June 30, 2015
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie Announces his Presidential Candidacy
June 30, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above: AP photo of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie during his presidential candidacy announcement event in Livingston, New Jersey, Tuesday, June 30, 2015
"A tough-talking New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie launched his 2016 campaign for president Tuesday with a promise to tell voters the truth even if it makes them cringe.
The Republican governor, a one-time GOP favorite who faded and now tries to climb back, lashed out at 'bickering leaders' from both political parties in a kickoff rally in the gymnasium of his old high school. And in his trademark blunt style, he told voters — and warned Republican rivals — that he's ready to be aggressive in the 2016 contest."
---Associated Press, June 30, 2015
Greece Fails to Make a 1.6 Billion Euros Payment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
"Greece slipped deeper into its financial abyss after the bailout program it has relied on for five years expired at midnight Tuesday and the country failed to repay a loan due to the International Monetary Fund.
With its failure to repay the roughly 1.6 billion euros ($1.8 billion) to the IMF, Greece became the first developed country to fall into arrears on payments to the fund. The last country to do so was Zimbabwe in 2001.
After Greece made a last-ditch effort to extend its bailout, eurozone finance ministers decided in a teleconference late Tuesday that there was no way they could reach a deal before the deadline."
"The International Monetary Fund said shortly after midnight Wednesday that Greece had missed a crucial debt payment to the fund.
'We have informed our executive board that Greece is now in arrears and can only receive I.M.F. financing once the arrears are cleared,' said Gerry Rice, a spokesman for the fund.
Greece is not technically in default, but missing the payment is yet another an unmistakable warning that the country will probably be unable to meet its other obligations in coming weeks, to its bond holders and to the European Central Bank. That may might make the European Central Bank, one of its principal creditors, less willing to continue emergency loans that have been propping up Greek banks for the past several months."
June 2015
Attacks by ISIS in Iraq:
June 1, 2015 (Monday)
Above: Wikipedia map of Iraq; Wikipedia map of Iraq with Anbar Province highlighted in dark orange
Associated Press: ISIS Carries out Attacks in Iraq, June 1, 2015
"Three Islamic State suicide bombers targeted a police base in Iraq's western Anbar province with explosives-laden Humvees on Monday, killing at least 41 police and Shiite militiamen, officials said.
The attack on a police station in the Tharthar area north of the IS-held provincial capital, Ramadi, caused a large secondary explosion in an ammunition depot, the officials said. Another 63 security forces members were wounded in the attack.
Hospital officials confirmed the casualties. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to brief the media.
Monday's attack resembled the massive, coordinated assault launched on Ramadi last month that allowed IS militants to capture the city, marking their biggest gain since a U.S.-led coalition began launching airstrikes against the extremist group last August. In that assault, the IS group also used Humvees looted from Iraqi security forces.
The loss of Ramadi prompted Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to order Shiite militiamen into the vast Sunni province, which was an insurgent hotbed during the eight-year U.S. military presence.
The Shiite militiamen have played a key role in pushing the Sunni IS group back elsewhere in Iraq, but have also been accused by rights groups of carrying out revenge attacks against Sunni citizens, charges denied by militia commanders."
---Associated Press, June 1, 2015
Reuters: ISIS Conducts Lethal Suicide Bomber Attack in Iraq, June 1, 2015
Publication of Ann Coulter's Adios America, an Anti-Immigration Screed that Resonated with Donald Trump
June 1, 2015 (Monday)
Above: Adios America book cover
Above: Jim Hughes Twitter post, June 1, 2015
Above: Ann Coulter Twitter post, June 1, 2015
Above: Breitbart.com screen image from June 3, 2015 article
1976 Olympics Men's Decathlon Champion Bruce Jenner Appears as Caitlyn Jenner
June 1, 2015 (Monday)
Above: Vanity Fair Twitter post, June 1, 2015
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, Announces his Candidacy for President
June 1, 2015 (Monday)
Above: AP photo of U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, during his presidential candidacy announcement event, Monday, June 1, 2015
Associated Press: U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham Announces Presidential Candidacy, June 1, 2015
"South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham opened his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination Monday with a grim accounting of radical Islam "running wild" in a world imperiled also by Iran's nuclear ambitions.
He dedicated himself to defeating U.S. adversaries — a commitment that would place thousands of troops back in Iraq, essentially re-engaging in a war launched in 2003."
---Associated Press, June 1, 2015
June 2, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above:
Former Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee Announces Presidential Bid as a Democrat
June 3, 2015 (Wednesday)
Above:
Reuters: Lincoln Chafee Launches Presidential Bid, June 3, 2015
Associated Press: Former Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee Enter Presidential Field, June 3, 2015
"Former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee entered the race for president Wednesday by calling for the U.S. to switch to the metric system, take an 'open-minded approach' to drug trafficking and consider negotiating with Islamic State militants.
With his announcement, Chafee became the biggest longshot among Hillary Rodham Clinton's Democratic rivals, who have a long way to go to avoid becoming historical footnotes in the 2016 campaign.
He did so by casting himself as an anti-war candidate who opposed the invasion of Iraq in 2003, but he quickly detoured into a list of policy proposals that are likely to be non-starters on the campaign trail.
Among them was refusing to rule out talks with Islamic State militants, a violent extremist group that has tortured and beheaded prisoners and opposition fighters as it has overrun parts of Iraq and Syria."
---Associated Press, June 3, 2015
Former Texas Governor Rick Perry Declares his Presidential Candidacy
June 4, 2015 (Thursday)
Above:
Associated Press: Rick Perry Begins his 2nd Bid for the American Presidency, June 4, 2015
"Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry opened his second bid for the Republican presidential nomination Thursday, pledging to 'end an era of failed leadership' and hoping this campaign will go better than his last one.
The longest-serving governor in Texas history when he left office in January, Perry made his announcement inside a steamy hangar at an airfield outside Dallas, in the company of fellow veterans and a hulking cargo plane like the one he flew for the Air Force."
---Associated Press, June 4, 2015
U.S. Economy Adds 280,000 Jobs in May 2015
June 5, 2015 (Friday)
Above:
CNN: U.S. Economy Added 280,000 Jobs in May
American Pharoah Wins the Preakness Stakes and the Triple Crown
June 6, 2015 (Saturday)
Reuters: American Pharoah Wins the Preakness Stakes, thus Securing the Triple Crown, June 6, 2015
"American Pharoah entered the pantheon of U.S. thoroughbred racing's all-time greats by winning the Belmont Stakes wire-to-wire on Saturday to become the first horse to capture the coveted 'Triple Crown' in nearly four decades.
In winning a seventh straight race, American Pharoah became the 12th horse and first since Affirmed in 1978 to sweep the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes."
---Reuters, June 7, 2015
Turkish Parliamentary Elections:
June 7, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan
New York Times: Coverage of Turkish Parliamentary Elections, June 7, 2015
"Turkish voters delivered a rebuke on Sunday to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as his party lost its majority in Parliament in a historic election that thwarted his ambition to rewrite Turkey’s Constitution and further bolster his clout."
---New York Times, June 7, 2015
June 8, 2015 (Monday)
Above:
Associated Press: President Obama States U.S. Lacking Comprehensive Plan for Training of Iraqi Forces, June 8, 2015
"Acknowledging military setbacks, President Barack Obama said Monday the United States still lacks a 'complete strategy' for training Iraqi forces to fight the Islamic State. He urged Iraq's government to allow more of the nation's Sunnis to join the campaign against the violent militants."
---Associated Press, June 8, 2015
Deadly Bombings in Iraq
June 9, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above: Wikipedia map of Iraq
Associated Press: Deadly Bombings in Iraq, June 9, 2015
"A series of bombings targeting public places and Iraqi security forces killed 20 people in and around Baghdad on Tuesday, officials said.
The deadliest attack took place on Tuesday night, when a car bomb went off near restaurants and shop in Palestine Street in eastern Baghdad, killing 10 people, including three women. The bombing also wounded 24 people, police officials said.
Several shops and cars were burned in the attack and police sealed off the blast area.
Earlier in the day, a roadside bomb struck an army patrol in Youssifiyah, just south of the Iraqi capital, killing three soldiers and one civilian. At least eight people were wounded in that attack, the officials said.
And two separate explosions near a vegetable market and on a commercial street killed six people and wounded 21 in western Baghdad."
---Associated Press, June 9, 2015
Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert Pleads Not Guilty
June 9, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above: Portrait of Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1999 to 2007
New York Times: Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert Pleads Not Guilty, June 9, 2015
"After days of silence, J. Dennis Hastert, a former speaker of the House of Representatives, on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he illegally structured bank withdrawals and lied to the authorities about millions of dollars he had promised to pay someone for misconduct that occurred decades ago."
---New York Times, June 9, 2015
June 10, 2015 (Wednesday)
Above: Wikipedia map of Iraq
Associated Press: Anniversary of the ISIS Conquest of Mosul, Iraq
"The Islamic State group gave only three options for the soldiers and police officers guarding Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, when they neared it a year ago: Repent, run or die.
Many ran. Those who resisted died, often gruesomely in mass killings filmed and uploaded to the Internet, only fueling fear of the extremists.
The collapse of Iraqi security forces, which received billions of dollars in aid and training from the U.S. during its occupation, haunts this divided country today, a year after the Islamic State group seized Mosul and a third of the country. Its sectarian divides grow deeper as millions remain displaced, military gains have seen militant counterattacks and a U.S.-led campaign of airstrikes appears not to have changed the stalemate.
What can change the situation is unclear, as lower oil prices sap the Iraqi economy, the U.S. limits its involvement on the ground and the Iraqi people as a whole continue to suffer."
---Associated Press, June 10, 2015
The Atlantic: Life in ISIS-Controlled Mosul
President Obama Orders an Increase in U.S. Military Advisers in Iraq
June 10, 2015 (Wednesday)
Above: President Barack Obama; Wikipedia map of Iraq
Reuters: President Obama Announces Plan to Send More U.S. Military Advisers to Iraq, June 10, 2015
"President Barack Obama on Wednesday ordered the deployment of 450 more U.S. troops to Iraq's Sunni heartland to advise and assist fragile Iraqi forces being built up to try to retake territory lost to Islamic State.
The plan to expand the 3,100-strong U.S. contingent in Iraq and open a new operations center closer to the fighting in Anbar province marks an adjustment in strategy for Obama, who has faced mounting pressure to do more to blunt the momentum of the insurgents.
But with Obama sticking to his refusal to send troops into combat or to the front lines, the White House announcement failed to silence critics who say the limited U.S. military role in the conflict is not enough to turn the tide of battle.
U.S. officials hope that a strengthened American presence on the ground in Anbar will help the Iraqi military devise and carry out a counter-attack to retake the provincial capital Ramadi, which insurgents seized last month in an onslaught that further exposed the shortcomings of the Iraqi army."
---Reuters, June 10, 2015
Associated Press: Obama Administration Announces Increase in Military Advisers to Iraq, June 10, 2015
"President Barack Obama ordered the deployment of up to 450 more American troops to Iraq on Wednesday in an effort to reverse major battlefield losses to the Islamic State, an escalation but not a significant shift in the struggling U.S. strategy to defeat the extremist group.
The U.S. forces will open a fifth training site in the country, this one dedicated specifically to helping the Iraqi Army integrate Sunni tribes into the fight, an element seen as a crucial to driving the Islamic State out of the Sunni-majority areas of western Iraq.
The immediate objective is to win back the key city of Ramadi, which was seized by extremists last month."
---Associated Press, June 10, 2015
Saving Iraq by Destroying it
Obama's Quagmire in Iraq
Ann Coulter's Adios America Proves Popular Among U.S. Conservatives
June 10, 2015
Above: Paul Bedard Twitter post, June 10, 2015
Publication of Pew Research Center Report: Multiracial Americans on the Rise
June 11, 2015 (Thursday)
Above:
Pew Research Center: Multiracial Americans a Dramatically Growing Segment of American Population
New York Times: Regional Differences in U.S. Two-Parent Households, June 11, 2015
New York Times: Pew Research Study Concludes U.S. Multiracial Population Nearing 7% of Total U.S. Population
"The number of American adults with mixed-race backgrounds is three times what official census figures indicate, and the figure is rising fast, according to a survey released Thursday. But most do not call themselves multiracial.
The Pew Research Center survey found that 6.9 percent of adults in the United States were multiracial, based on how they identify themselves or on having parents or grandparents of different races. By comparison, the 2010 census reported 2.1 percent of adults, and 2.9 percent of people any age, as multiracial, based on people’s descriptions of themselves or others in their households. (Hispanics are considered an ethnic group, not a race.)"
---New York Times, June 11, 2015
Pacific Free Trade Legislation Suffers Major Setback in U.S. House of Representatives
June 12, 2015 (Friday)
Above:
Associated Press: House Democrats Abandon Obama on Free Trade Vote, June 12, 2015
"Led by union-backed Democrats, the House delivered a stinging blow to President Barack Obama on Friday and left his ambitious global trade agenda in serious doubt.
Republican leaders, who generally support Obama's trade objectives, signaled they might try to revive the package as early as next week. But that could require the shifting of at least 90 votes within either or both parties, a heavy lift.
Friday's setback was deep and personal for Obama, who made a surprise, last-minute trip to the Capitol to ask House Democrats to back him.
Not only did they reject him by the dozens, they were led by party leader Nancy Pelosi of California, who has often expressed deep admiration for the president. She joined in a tactic that even some Democrats called devious and cynical: voting against a favorite job-retraining program in order to imperil the trade package's main component: 'fast track' negotiating authority for Obama.
Hours earlier, Obama had specifically asked Democrats not to do that. But in a crowded House chamber, Pelosi urged her colleagues to ignore him."
---Associated Press, June 12, 2015
ISIS Battles Iraqi Forces Near Baiji Oil Refinery
June 13, 2015 (Saturday)
Above: Wikipedia map of Iraq
Reuters: ISIS Forces on the Attack Near Baiji Refinery in Iraq, June 13, 2015
"Islamic State militants attacked government forces and their Shi'ite militia allies on Saturday, killing 11 near the city of Baiji as part of the battle for control of Iraq's biggest refinery, army and police sources said.
Four suicide bombers in vehicles packed with explosives hit security forces and the local headquarters of the Shi'ite militias in the area of al-Hijjaj, 10 km (6 miles) to the south of Baiji town, near the refinery, sources at the nearby Tikrit security operations command said.
Iraqi government forces and powerful Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias face Islamic State on several fronts in Iraq, a major oil producer and OPEC member.
They include areas around Baiji refinery, north of Baghdad, and the city of Ramadi west of the capital, seized last month by Islamic State, the ultra-hardline Sunni group that poses the biggest threat to Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003."
---Reuters, June 13, 2015
Washington Post: High Ranking Military Reluctance to Increase Efforts in Iraq
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Makes Major Campaign Speech
June 13, 2015 (Saturday)
Above:
Above:
Associated Press: Hillary Clinton Makes Major Campaign Speech, June 13, 2015
"Hillary Rodham Clinton formally kicked off her presidential campaign on Saturday with an enthusiastic embrace of her potential to become the first woman to win the White House, asking supporters gathered at an outdoor rally to join her in building an America 'where we don't leave anyone out, or anyone behind.'
With the downtown New York skyline and new World Trade Center over her shoulder, Clinton offered herself as a fierce advocate for those still struggling from the Great Recession."
---Associated Press, June 13, 2015
The War Against ISIS: Kurdish Forces Moving Against Key ISIS-Held Syrian Border Town
June 14, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: Washington Post maps of Syria and the area around the Syrian town of Tel Abyad
Associated Press: Kurdish Forces Nearing Conquest of ISIS-Held Town in Syria, June 14, 2015
"Syrian Kurdish fighters closed in on the outskirts of a strategic Islamic State-held town on the Turkish border Sunday, Kurdish officials and an activist group said, potentially cutting off a key supply line for the extremists' nearby de facto capital.
Taking Tal Abyad, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa, would mean the group wouldn't have a direct route to bring in new foreign militants or supplies. The Kurdish advance, coming under the cover of intense U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in the area, also would link their two fronts and put even more pressure on Raqqa as Iraqi forces struggle to contain the group in their country.
Meanwhile, hundreds trying to flee the offensive pressed against the barbed wire fences separating the town from Turkey, as masked militants likely belonging to the Islamic State group could be seen as Turkish soldiers watched from the other side.
On Sunday, Kurdish official Idriss Naasan said that Islamic State fighters have fled from Suluk, a few kilometers (miles) southwest of Tal Abyad, and that Kurds now hold the town. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said Islamic State fighters had withdrawn. The Observatory said the Kurds are about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Tal Abyad."
---Associated Press, June 14, 2015
The War Against ISIS: Kurdish Forces Close to Taking the Syrian Border Town of Tel Abyad
June 15, 2015 (Monday)
Above: Wikipedia map of Syria
Reuters: Kurdish Forces Close to Taking Syrian Border Town From ISIS, June 15, 2015
"The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, aided by U.S.-led air strikes, have seized most of the town of Tel Abyad from Islamic State militants and pushed them back towards their de facto capital in Raqqa, a monitoring group said on Monday.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks Syria's civil war, said a handful of Islamic State fighters and their Arab tribal allies remained in a few pockets inside Tel Abyad near the Turkish border.
While dealing a blow to Islamic State, seizing Tel Abyad would help the YPG link up Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Syria. Turkey is worried about the risk of separatist sentiment among its own Kurdish minority in the southwest.
The Kurdish thrust into Tel Abyad came from both east and west of the town where it brought troops from Hasaka province in the northeastern part of Syria and from Kobani, northwest of Tel Abyad. But U.S.-led coalition bombing of Islamic State positions in the town played a decisive role in repelling the jihadists."
---Reuters, June 15, 2015
Jeb Bush Announces his Presidential Candidacy
June 15, 2015 (Monday)
Above: AP photo of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush during his presidential announcement event in Miami, Florida on Monday, June 15, 2015
Associated Press: Jeb Bush Announces his Presidential Candidacy, June 15, 2015
"Vowing to win the Republican presidential nomination on his own merits, Jeb Bush launched a White House bid months in the making Monday with a promise to stay true to his beliefs — easier said than done in a bristling primary contest where his conservative credentials will be sharply challenged."
---Associated Press, June 15, 2015
The GOP Presidential Field as of June 15, 2015
The War Against ISIS: Tal Abyad, Syria Falls to the Kurdish Militant Group, YPG
June 16, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above: AP photo (taken from the Turkish side of the Turkey-Syria border) showing the Kurdish YPG flag flying above the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad, Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Associated Press: Kurdish Forces Capture Key Syrian Border Town from ISIS, May 16, 2015
"Kurdish fighters took full control of the border town of Tal Abyad on Tuesday, dealing a major blow to the Islamic State group's ability to wage war in Syria by cutting off a vital supply line to its self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa.
A senior Kurdish commander, Haqi Kobane, told The Associated Press that Kurdish units known as the YPG that he leads, along with their allies from the Free Syrian Army, were starting to clear booby traps and mines in the town along the border with Turkey. The extremists had been in control of it for more than a year."
---Associated Press, June 16, 2015
Associated Press: Key Events in the Rise of ISIS, 2010-2015
Al-Qaeda Announces the Death of a Key Leader
June 16, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above: Al Qaeda in Yemen leader Nasser al-Wuhayshi, circa 2012
Above:
New York Times: Al-Qaeda Acknowledges Death of Key Leader, June 16, 2015
"Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen released a video statement on Tuesday confirming the death of its leader, Nasser al-Wuhayshi, in an American missile strike.
Mr. Wuhayshi, 38, who had led Qaeda operations in Yemen since 2002 and was also the global extremist network’s second-ranking leader, was killed along with two other operatives, the statement said.
The group said that its military commander, Qassim al-Raimi, had been chosen as Mr. Wuhayshi’s successor."
---New York Times, June 16, 2015
NBC News: Several Possible Heirs to Osama Bin Laden Killed by U.S.
Donald Trump Announces his Presidential Candidacy
June 16, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above: AP photos of Donald Trump during his presidential candidacy announcement event at Trump Tower in New York City, Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Associated Press: Donald Trump Joins the GOP Presidential Field, June 16, 2015
"The Donald is running for president.
Real-estate mogul and reality-television star Donald Trump said Tuesday he will seek the Republican nomination for president. He's the 12th high-profile Republican to enter the 2016 race, with more to come in the weeks ahead."
---Associated Press, June 16, 2015
Hillary Clinton Campaigns in South Carolina
June 17, 2015 (Wednesday)
Above: AP photo via ABC News of Hillary Clinton in North Charleston, South Carolina on June 17, 2015
Above: Charleston Post and Courier photo of Hillary Clinton at Trident Technical College in North Charleston, South Carolina on June 17, 2015
HillarySpeeches.com: Hillary Clinton at Trident Technical College in North Charleston, South Carolina, June 17, 2015
"Today, Hillary Rodham Clinton returned to South Carolina where she gave a speech at Trident Technical College in North Charleston where the focus on her speech was on technical education. She said that technical colleges have a reputation that is often unfair as they teach vital skills to our economy. Clinton said that she would propose a $1500 tax credit for businesses who offer apprenticeship programs."
---HillarySpeeches.com, June 17, 2015
ABC News: Hillary Clinton in South Carolina, June 17, 2015
"Clinton is currently in South Carolina after swings through Iowa and New Hampshire following her official kick-off rally in New York City last weekend.
During an event today at the Trident Technical College in North Charleston, Clinton rolled out new policies to reduce youth unemployment and called for tax credits for businesses that offer apprenticeship programs to young people."
---ABC News, June 17, 2015
CNN: Hillary Clinton Makes Campaign Stop in Charleston, South Carolina, June 17, 2015
"Hillary Clinton called the family of Walter Scott, an unarmed black man killed by a police officer earlier this year, to extend her condolences, a spokesman for the Scott family told CNN on Wednesday.
Clinton, who was in South Carolina on Wednesday for a series of campaign events, spoke with Judy Scott, Walter's mother, before she took the stage at a young unemployment event in North Charleston, just two miles from where Scott was killed."
---CNN, June 17, 2015
MSNBC: Hillary Clinton Campaigns in South Carolina, June 17, 2015
Charleston Post and Courier: Hillary Clinton in South Carolina, June 17, 2015
"Hillary Clinton appealed to the young and old looking to get into or re-enter the job market during her second trip to South Carolina since officially entering the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, saying America needs to reinvest in apprenticeship programs that will turn them into marketable and skilled workers.
'I want to be a president for both the successful and the struggling,' Clinton said during her half-hour appearance Wednesday at Trident Technical College in North Charleston. 'And right now, the struggling need more help.'"
---Charleston Post and Courier, June 17, 2015
The War Against ISIS: United States Failing to Meet Goal of Training 24,000 Iraqi Troops
June 17, 2015 (Wednesday)
Above: AP photo of Defense Secretary Ash Carter and General Martin Dempsey on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on June 17, 2015
Associated Press: U.S Will Not Meet Goal in Terms of Training Over 20,000 Iraqi Troops
"The U.S. will fall way short of meeting its goal of training 24,000 Iraqi forces to fight Islamic State militants by this fall, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Wednesday on Capitol Hill where lawmakers are already skeptical of the Obama administration's strategy to address threats in the Mideast.
Carter told the House Armed Services Committee that the U.S. has received only enough recruits to train about 7,000 — in addition to about 2,000 counterterrorism service personnel."
---Associated Press, June 17, 2015
Mass Murder by a White Gunman at an African-American Church in Charleston, South Carolina
June 17, 2015 (Wednesday)
Above: Rev. Clementa Pinckney, 1973-2015
Above: Daily Mail composite photo of the nine victims in the Charleston Church Massacre
Above: USA Today graphic listing the names of the nine people killed in the Charleston Church Massacre
Above: Washington Post maps showing Charleston, South Carolina in regional context and the position of Emanuel AME Church within Charleston
Above: Associated Press map and graphic regarding the June 17, 2015 Charleston Church Massacre
Above: AP photo of grieving people in Charleston, South Carolina on June 17, 2015
Above: Charleston Police Department (via AP) document showing images of the suspect in the murders of nine people at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina
Above: Security camera images (via AP) of the shooting suspect (later identified as Dylann Storm Roof) in the Charleston Church Massacre
Time.com: Nine People Killed in Mass Shooting at African-American Church in Charleston, South Carolina, June 17, 2015
Reuters: Coverage of the Charleston, S.C. Church Massacre
Associated Press: Coverage of the Charleston, South Carolina African-American Church Mass Shooting, June 17, 2015
Associated Press: The Massacre in Charleston, South Carolina
"A white man opened fire during a prayer meeting inside a historic black church in downtown Charleston, killing nine people, including the pastor, in an assault authorities described as a hate crime.
The suspect attended the meeting at the church Wednesday night and stayed for nearly an hour before the deaths, police Chief Greg Mullen said.
The shooter remained at large Thursday morning and police released photographs from surveillance video of a suspect and a possible getaway vehicle. Mullen said he could not offer a make and model on the dark colored sedan because investigators were not certain about what is shown in the video.
The victims were six females and three males, Mullen said Thursday morning. He did not give other details and said names would be released after families were notified.
But State House Minority leader Todd Rutherford told The Associated Press that the Emanuel AME Church's pastor, state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, was among those killed.
Pinckney, 41, was a married father of two who was elected to the state House at age 23, making him the youngest member of the House at the time."
---Associated Press, June 18, 2015
The New Yorker: A Hate Crime in Charleston, South Carolina
At about 8 P.M. last night, a young man walked into the Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston and took a seat. Others in the church were taking part in a weekly Bible study and prayer circle. He 'stayed there for almost an hour before the event,' as Police Chief Greg Mullen said at a press conference at seven this morning. The event was the man taking a gun—the police haven’t said what kind yet—and shooting nine people in the church dead. He is in custody; at the press conference, the police chief showed grainy pictures, stills from security footage, and an image of his car, a black Hyundai, and asked for help in identifying him. Three hours later, there was a name: Dylann Roof, twenty-one years old, of Lexington, South Carolina. An hour after that, by 11:30 A.M., Roof had been caught. He had driven to North Carolina, and was two hundred and fifty miles from Charleston.
---The New Yorker, June 18, 2015
Pope Francis Issues Laudato Si, an Encyclical on Global Warming and Other Environmental Issues
June 18, 2015 (Thursday)
Above: Pope Francis
Associated Press: Pope Francis Issues Encyclical on Global Warming, June 18, 2015
"With a poet's lyricism, a former chemist's precision and a pontiff's moral thunder, Pope Francis recast humanity's relationship with nature in stark ethical terms, hoping to spur a warming, filthy world to clean up its act 'before it's too late.'
In issuing 'Laudato Si,' his much-anticipated encyclical on climate change, the pope on Thursday took an extraordinary approach to an environmental issue often framed in the dry language of science. Francis' teaching document is a melodic yet radical indictment, depicting a materialistic and wasteful society that is hurting the planet and its poorest people.
He challenges the world to stop pollution, to recycle and carpool and to do without air conditioning — and makes it a moral imperative.
'The exploitation of the planet has already exceeded acceptable limits and we still have not solved the problem of poverty,' he writes.
The pope's 'marching orders for advocacy,' as the head of the U.S. conference of bishops calls it, comes as the world nears make-or-break time for international climate change negotiations that start late this year in Paris.
'This is a seminal moment in world history because the pope now is the leading global voice on climate change,' said prominent Rice University historian Douglas Brinkley, who has written both on the church and environmentalism. 'The pope brings extraordinary clout connecting Christianity and humanism to the protection of natural resources.'"
---Associated Press, June 18, 2015
Dylann Storm Roof Arrested as the Suspect in the Charleston Church Massacre
June 18, 2015 (Thursday)
Above: AP photo of Charleston Church Massacre suspect Dylann Storm Roof in Shelby, North Carolina on June 18, 2015; Rev. Clementa Pinckney, 1973-2015
Above: AP photo of Charleston Church Massacre suspect Dylann Storm Roof being escorted by Shelby law enforcement in Shelby, North Carolina on June 18, 2015; Charleston County Sheriff's Office (via AP) photo of Dylann Roof, Thursday, June 18, 2015
Above: Dylann Storm Roof, Facebook Photo
New York Times: Dylann Roof, the Suspect in the Charleston Church Massacre, Arrested in North Carolina, June 18, 2015
"The man suspected of killing nine people at a prayer meeting at a historic black church in this city’s downtown area was caught on Thursday some 200 miles away in North Carolina, local and federal officials said.
After an intensive, 14-hour manhunt for the man who carried out a massacre that officials are calling racially motivated, Dylann Storm Roof, 21, 'was arrested in Shelby, N.C., during a traffic stop' shortly after 11 a.m., said Greg Mullen, the Charleston police chief.
The police here say Mr. Roof, who is white, is suspected of being the gunman who walked into the prayer meeting Wednesday night, sat down with black parishioners for nearly an hour, and then opened fire."
---New York Times, June 18, 2015
Reuters: Charleston Church Massacre Suspect Dylann Storm Roof Arrested, June 18, 2015
The Nation: The Death of a Civil Rights Champion
Associated Press: Dylann Storm Roof Arrested for Carrying out the Charleston Church Massacre, June 18, 2015
New York Times: Dylann Storm Roof
"The Facebook profile picture chosen by Dylann Storm Roof in May is thick with symbolism. It shows Mr. Roof, a scowling young white man, against a distinctly Southern backdrop: a swamp dripping with Spanish moss. His black jacket is adorned with two flags — one from apartheid-era South Africa, the other from white-ruled Rhodesia — that have been adopted as emblems by modern-day white supremacists."
---New York Times, June 18, 2015
Charleston Post and Courier: The Confederate Battle Flag Still Flies in Charleston, South Carolina, June 18, 2015
"The Confederate flag flying at the Statehouse in Columbia became part of the Charleston church shooting story Thursday after the U.S. and South Carolina flags were lowered in mourning but the rebel banner was left flying at its full height.
State Sen. Clementa Pinckney, a black Democratic lawmaker and minister, was among the nine people killed by a lone gunman accused of committing a hate crime. The suspect, Dylann Roof, 21, also displayed Confederate sympathies in some social media photographs."
---Charleston Post and Courier, June 18, 2015
Above: Getty Images photo of the Confederate Battle Flag flying above the South Carolina Capitol grounds in Columbia, South Carolina on June 18, 2015
Gawker.com: Dylann Roof and the Confederate Flag
Above: Dylann Roof leaning on a car, a vehicle with a front tag with images of Confederate flags; Close-up of the Confederate Flags car tag
Charleston Church Massacre: Dylann Roof Charged with Nine Counts of Murder and Appears Before a South Carolina Judge
June 19, 2015 (Friday)
Above: ABC News photo of Dylann Roof appearing via video in a South Carolina bond hearing, June 19, 2015
Above: AP photo of Dylann Roof appearing via video in a South Carolina bond hearing, June 19, 2015
Above: Daily Mail composite photo of the nine victims in the Charleston Church Massacre
Above: Cover of the June 29, 2015 issue of The New Yorker, a cover honoring the nine victims of the Charleston Church Massacre; Political cartoon connecting the Confederate battle flag and the worldview of accused mass murderer Dylann Roof
ABC News: Dylann Roof Appears via Video for Bond Hearing, June 19, 2015
Associated Press: Dylann Storm Appears via Video Before a South Carolina Judge, June 19, 2015
Ana Marie Cox: The GOP's Agnosticism about Racism
New York Times: Coverage of the Confederate Flag Controversy, June 19, 2015
"Stunned by the massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, South Carolina has been abruptly forced to confront an issue that has bedeviled it for decades: the Confederate battle flag that flies above the grounds of the State House.
The tension was on display Friday, while the American and South Carolina flags flew at half-staff and the Confederate battle flag remained at the peak of its pole outside the State House in Columbia and the N.A.A.C.P. renewed its demand that the Civil War standard be permanently removed."
---New York Times, June 19, 2015
Associated Press: Chronology of the Charleston Church Massacre from June 17, 2015 through June 19, 2015
"FRIDAY
7:15 a.m.
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley says the gunman in the Emanuel AME shootings should get the death penalty.
9:56 a.m.
Police in Charleston say the suspect in the church shootings is charged with nine counts of murder and a weapon charge.
12:15 p.m.
Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. says a fund has been set up to help the families of the nine victims, as well as the church itself.
1 p.m.
The head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is calling the slaying of nine people inside the church an act of 'racial terrorism' and says the Confederate flag flying on the South Carolina Capitol grounds in Columbia needs to come down.
1:42 p.m.
Charleston County sheriff's Maj. Eric Watson says Roof is being held in a cell next to Michael Slager, the former North Charleston police officer who fatally shot a black man on April 4 as he was running away from him. The shooting was recorded on a bystander's cellphone.
2:27 p.m.
Roof makes his first court appearance, with the relatives of all the victims making tearful statements. A judge sets bond at $1 million for the weapons charge but doesn't have the authority to set bond on the nine murder counts. That is left up to a circuit judge at a later date.
4:25 p.m.
The chief prosecutor in Charleston County says he wants to talk to the families of the victims and review the evidence before making any decision on whether to seek the death penalty against Roof."
---Associated Press, June 19, 2015
Above: Bill Maher
The Daily Beast: Bill Maher Rips Conservative Media Outlets on the Matter of Dylann Roof
"Bill Maher’s gloves came off on Friday, as the host of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher slammed the right wing for influencing the warped worldview of Dylann Roof, the vile terrorist who shot nine African-Americans to death in a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, in order to, he said, 'start a race war.'
Specifically, Maher criticized right-wing media, including conservative-leaning news organizations like Fox News, The Drudge Report, and The Daily Caller, for helping to mold the racist mind of Roof. "
---The Daily Beast, June 19, 2015
RawStory.com: Bill Maher Claims Conservative Media Influenced Dylann Roof
"Real Time host Bill Maher suggested on Friday that Charleston terrorism suspect Dylann Roof was a fan of conservative media outlets.
'We can never know why somebody snaps — but I bet you I know where he got his news,' Maher told senior Daily Caller contributor Matt Lewis. 'I looked at your website the last week. It was a lot of stories about black people. A lot of stories. Same with Matt Drudge. I think they present a twisted view. I’m not surprised this guy thought, ‘They’re taking over the country.''"
---Raw Story, June 19, 2015
The Independent: Seven Explanations of the Charleston Church Massacre Offered up by Republicans
The Daily Beast: Alabama Cops and White Supremacists
Elspeth Reeve: "Does Jeb Bush Know Anything?"
The Charleston Church Massacre: Additional Photos of Dylann Roof, Plus a Manifesto Found Online
June 20, 2015 (Saturday)
Above: Slate updated photo (via LastRhodesian.com ) of Dylann Roof with Confederate Battle Flag
Above: New York Times photo (via white supremacist website) of Dylann Roof with Confederate Battle Flag and handgun
New York Times: Photos of Dylann Roof and a Manifesto Found Online, June 20, 2015
"A website with a white supremacist manifesto features dozens of photos of Dylann Storm Roof, the man accused of killing nine people at a church in Charleston, S.C., posing with weapons, burning an American flag and visiting Southern historic sites and Confederate soldiers’ graves."
---New York Times, June 20, 2015
The Daily Beast: Dylann Roof's Racist Manifesto
Charleston Post and Courier: Coverage of the Charleston Church Massacre, June 20, 2015
"Dylann Roof, the man accused of killing nine people at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, purportedly said he chose the Holy City for his killing spree 'because it is the most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to white in the country.'
The statement is included in a 2,444-word racist diatribe found Saturday on a website called LastRhodesian.com that also includes dozens of photographs that appear to feature Roof. Several of the photos include symbols known to be associated with hate groups. The document and photographs have not been authenticated and it is uncertain whether Roof actually is the author.
However, the document’s language is in line with what Roof’s friends say he told them and what survivors of the shooting say Roof told church members before allegedly opening fire."
---Charleston Post and Courier, June 20, 2015
Slate.com: Dylann Roof's Manifesto
Politico: "Dylann Roof's Rebel Yell"
CNN: Racist Manifesto and Photos of Dylann Roof Found on Website Entitled, "LastRhodesian"
Slate: Roof "Well-Versed in White Supremacist Thought"
The Charleston Church Massacre: Services Resume at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina
June 21, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: AP photo of Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, Sunday, June 21, 2015; AP photo of Rev. Norvel Goff speaking at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, Sunday, June 21, 2015
Above: AP photo of church service attendees at Emanuel AME Church on Sunday, June 21, 2015; AP photo of Emanuel AME Church on Sunday, June 21, 2015
Associated Press: Church Service Conducted at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, June 21, 2015
"The congregation at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal swayed and sang, prayed and welcomed the world into their sanctuary on Sunday, holding the first worship service since a white gunman was accused of opening fire during a Bible study, killing nine black church members."
---Associated Press, June 21, 2015
Charleston Post and Courier: Confederate Statue Vandalized
The Daily Beast: The Council of Conservative Citizens and Dylann Roof
"In his own words, Dylann Roof’s path from a child 'not raised in a racist home or environment' to the 21-year-old white supremacist who shot and killed nine men and women in a historic black church in Charleston last Wednesday evening began with the discovery of a website.
After the murder of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, in 2012, Roof claimed he was 'awakened.' In the manifesto he published to his personal website, LastRhodesian.com, Roof wrote that Martin’s murder prompted him to search for 'black on White crime [sic],' on Google, which led him to the Council of Conservative Citizens."
---The Daily Beast, June 21, 2015
New York Times: GOP Presidential Candidates and the Confederate Flag
"The massacre of nine African-Americans in a storied Charleston church last week, which thrust the issues of race relations and gun rights into the center of the 2016 presidential campaign, has now resurfaced another familiar and divisive question in the emerging contest for the Republican nomination: what to do with the Confederate battle flag that flies on the grounds of the South Carolina Capitol.
And similarly to some of their predecessors seeking to win the state’s first-in-the-South primary election, the leading Republican candidates are treading delicately so as not to risk offending the conservative white voters who venerate the most recognizable emblem of the Confederacy."
---New York Times, June 21, 2015
Lloyd Green: The GOP and the Confederate Flag
"The embers of the Confederacy glow within the Republican Party. A century and a half has passed since Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse, but the GOP’s 2016 would-be nominees can’t bring themselves to say that South Carolina needs to stop flying the Confederate Battle Flag.
That’s a problem for what was once the Party of Lincoln as it hurtles toward the 2016 presidential election.
With the exceptions of Ohio Governor John Kasich and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the Republican Party’s prospective nominees appear constitutionally incapable of owning up to the fact that the Confederate flag belongs in a museum, and not on the grounds of the South Carolina statehouse. And yes, South Carolina’s place in the GOP’s primary calendar, coupled with the South’s dependability as a Sea of Red on Election Night, make it a seemingly tough call for the Republicans."
---Lloyd Green, The Daily Beast, June 21, 2015
Above: New York Times photo of Earl Holt III of the Council of Conservative Citizens
The Guardian: Leader of Council of Conservative Citizens Donated to Prominent Republicans, Including Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum, and Rand Paul
"The leader of a rightwing group that Dylann Roof allegedly credits with helping to radicalise him against black people before the Charleston church massacre has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Republicans such as presidential candidates Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Rick Santorum."
----The Guardian, June 21, 2015
New York Times: Leader of Council of Conservative Citizens Donated to Ted Cruz and Other Republicans
"The leader of a white supremacist group that has been linked to Dylann Roof, the suspect in the murder of nine African-Americans in a Charleston, S.C., church last week, has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Republican campaigns, including those of 2016 presidential contenders such as Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum and Rand Paul, records show.
Mr. Cruz, a Texas senator, said Sunday night that he would be returning about $8,500 in donations that he had received from the Texas donor, Earl Holt III, who lists himself as president of the Council of Conservative Citizens."
---New York Times, June 22, 2015
Charleston Church Massacre: Continued Calls for the Removal of the Confederate Flag from the South Carolina Capitol Grounds
June 22, 2015 (Monday)
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Reuters: Continued Calls to Remove the Confederate Flag in South Carolina, June 22, 2015
"South Carolina activists on Monday stepped up their call for lawmakers to remove the Confederate battle flag from the state capitol grounds five days after a white gunman allegedly shot dead nine black worshippers at a historic church in Charleston.
The demand by U.S. civil rights leaders and local elected officials for the state to remove the rallying symbol of the pro-slavery South during the U.S. civil war follows revelations that 21-year-old Dylann Roof, charged with Wednesday's attack on the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, had posted a racist manifesto on the Internet and posed with the flag.
'The time has come to remove this symbol of hate and division from our state capitol,' said Reverend Nelson Rivers, pastor of the Charity Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston, South Carolina. 'The time has come for the general assembly to do what it ought to have done a long time ago, which is to remove this symbol of divisiveness and even terrorism to some,' said Rivers, who is black.
Many liberal Americans consider the flag an emblem of slavery but many conservatives say it is a symbol of the south's history and culture."
---Reuters, June 22, 2015
Associated Press: Coverage of the Confederate Flag Controversy, June 22, 2015
"Pressure on South Carolina Republicans to remove the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds grew on Monday, days after a young white man who embraced the banner as a symbol of white power was charged with murdering nine people inside their historic black church.
State leaders held a flurry of meetings to figure out what to do. Gov. Nikki Haley, who has favored leaving the flag where it is, was meeting with lawmakers ahead of a news conference announced for Monday afternoon."
---Associated Press, June 22, 2015
Charleston Post and Courier: Bipartisan Group Calls for Removal of Confederate Flag in South Carolina, June 22, 2015
"A bipartisan group of local politician joined activists and religious leaders Monday in calling for state lawmakers to remove the Confederate battle flag from Statehouse grounds after the death of nine people at a downtown Charleston church."
---Charleston Post and Courier, June 22, 2015
The Nation: "The 2 Degrees of Separation Between Dylann Roof and the Republican Party"
New York Times: Council of Conservative Citizens and the GOP
The Charleston Church Massacre: South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley Calls for Removal of Confederate Flag from Statehouse Grounds
June 22, 2015 (Monday)
Above: AP photo of South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley (Republican) during an address in which she called for the removal of the Confederate Flag from the capitol ground of the South Carolina statehouse, June 22, 2015
Associated Press: South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley Calls for the Removal of the Confederate Flag, June 22, 2015
"South Carolina's governor declared Monday that the Confederate flag should be removed from the Statehouse grounds, reflecting what she described as a new consensus that the slaying of nine black churchgoers has changed what the banner stands for.
Gov. Nikki Haley's about-face comes just days after authorities charged Dylann Storm Roof, 21, with murder. The white man appeared in photos waving holding Confederate flags and burning or desecrating U.S. flags, and purportedly wrote of fomenting racial violence. Survivors told police he hurled racial insults during the attack."
---Associated Press, June 22, 2015
New York Times: South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley Calls For Confederate Flag to be Removed from State Capitol Grounds, June 22, 2015
"Gov. Nikki R. Haley called on Monday for South Carolina to do what just a week ago seemed politically impossible — remove the Confederate battle flag from its perch in front of the State House building here. She argued that a symbol long revered by many Southerners was for some, after the church massacre in Charleston, a 'deeply offensive symbol of a brutally offensive past.'"
---New York Times, June 22, 2015
Charleston Church Massacre: Walmart Announces it will Cease to Sell Confederate Flag Merchandise
June 22, 2015 (Monday)
Above: Screen image (via Business Insider) from Walmart website showing Confederate Flag merchandise
CNN.com: Walmart to Quit Selling Confederate Flag Products
"Walmart, the country's largest retailer, will remove all Confederate flag merchandise from its stores, the company told CNN Monday.
The announcement is the latest indication that the flag, a symbol of the slave-holding South, has become toxic in the aftermath of a shooting last week at a historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina. Gov. Nikki Haley announced in a Monday afternoon news conference that she supports removing the Confederate flag from the state capitol grounds.
Walmart.com currently carries the Confederate flag as well as attire featuring the flag's design, such as T-shirts and belt buckles."
---CNN, June 22, 2015
Charleston Church Massacre: Anti-Confederate Momentum Continues to Build
June 23, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above:
Above: AP map and graphic regarding former Confederate states and controversies over Confederate symbols
Above: AL.com cartoon by J.D. Crowe
Roy Moore Addressed the Council of Conservative Citizens in 1995
Charleston Post and Courier: Strom Thurmond's Son Supports Removal of the Confederate Flag
"The Old and the New South collided when South Carolina state Sen. Paul Thurmond on Tuesday became one of the first lawmakers to officially call for removing the Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse grounds, something that would be unthinkable during the times of his famous father, segregationist Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond.
In a speech timed to shape the debate for the anti-flag movement, Paul Thurmond took to the podium and spoke for more than six minutes, calling the flag an emblem from a war that is long ended and has taken on racist connections."
---Charleston Post and Courier, June 23, 2015
Reuters: An Flag-Making Company to Cease Making the Confederate Flag
"One of the most prominent U.S. flag makers said on Tuesday it will stop manufacturing and selling Confederate flags in the wake of last week's attack on worshipers at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Reggie VandenBosch, vice president of sales at the privately owned Valley Forge Flag, said the Pennsylvania-based company came to the decision amid growing controversy over the Confederate flag, which currently flies outside the South Carolina state capitol in Columbia."
---Reuters, June 23, 2015
New York Times: Anti-Confederate Initiatives Spread, June 23, 2015
"As South Carolina legislators voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to consider removing a Confederate battle flag from the Capitol grounds, a groundswell against symbols of the Confederacy spread to other states, fueled by newfound support from conservatives.
Spurred by the killing of nine people inside a Charleston church last week, Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican, said Monday that the state’s General Assembly should remove the Confederate flag from outside the State House.
In Mississippi, the Republican speaker of the State House, Philip Gunn, a Republican, said the banner should be removed from his state’s flag. Matt Bevin, the Republican nominee for governor in Kentucky, lauded Ms. Haley and said that a statue of Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president, should be removed from his state’s Capitol."
---New York Times, June 23, 2015
Charleston Church Massacre Aftermath: Confederate Flags Taken Down at Alabama Capitol Grounds
June 24, 2015 (Wednesday)
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AL.com: Governor Robert Bentley Takes Down the Confederate Flags on the Capitol Grounds in Montgomery, Alabama, June 24, 2015
"On the order of Gov. Robert Bentley, the Confederate battle flag which stands at the foot of the confederate memorial on the state Capitol grounds was taken down this morning.
Two workers came out of the Capitol building about 8:20 a.m. and with no fanfare quickly and quietly took the flag down. They declined to answer questions.
Moments later Gov. Bentley emerged from the Capitol on his way to an appearance in Hackleburg. Asked if he had ordered the flag taken down, the governor said, 'Yes I did.'"
---AL.com, June 24, 2015
Above:
"The End of Dylann Roof's White America"
Charleston Church Massacre: Slain State Senator Clementa Pinckney (Democrat) Lying in State at the South Carolina Statehouse
June 24, 2015 (Wednesday)
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Charleston Post and Courier: Slain State Senator Clementa Pinckney Lying in State at the South Carolina Statehouse, June 24, 2015
"Hundreds of mourners are making their way past the open casket of state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, who is lying in state Wednesday under the Capitol dome a week after he and eight others were slain at a historic black Charleston church.
Pinckney, pastor of Charleston’s Emanuel AME church, and the churchgoers attending Bible study were killed by a white gunman.
The procession followed a paved path around the west side of the Statehouse grounds as photographers, videographers and other journalists chased after it, once bursting beyond police officers who tried to block their way. Some people walked quietly behind it."
---Charleston Post and Courier, June 24, 2015
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal Announces his Presidential Candidacy
June 24, 2015 (Wednesday)
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NOLA.com: Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal Announces his Presidential Bid, June 24, 2015
"Gov. Bobby Jindal launched his long-anticipated bid for the White House on Wednesday (June 24), declaring himself 'running for president of the greatest country in the history of the world' before a crowd of more than 1,000 supporters at the Pontchartrain Center in Kenner.
With the announcement, the 44-year-old Jindal becomes the fifth Louisiana resident to make a run for the presidency, following in the footsteps of Zachary Taylor (only successful candidate), Huey Long, David Duke and Buddy Roemer. It also marks the high point of a career for Jindal that has always been meteoric: from agency head to Congressman to governor -- and now the first Indian-American presidential candidate."
---NOLA.com, June 24, 2015
ABC News: Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is Running for President, June 24, 2015
ISIS Forces Make Assaults in Northern Syria
June 25, 2015 (Thursday)
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Associated Press: ISIS Forces Carry Out Attacks in Northern Syria, June 25, 2015
"After weeks of setbacks, militants from the Islamic State group launched swift counteroffensives Thursday on predominantly Kurdish areas of northern Syria, killing and wounding dozens and setting off car bombs, activists and officials said.
The two-pronged attack on the northeastern city of Hassakeh and the border town of Kobani came two days after an Islamic State spokesman acknowledged that the group might lose some battles but would not be defeated. The spokesman, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, had urged militants to strike back at their foes during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and 'shake the ground beneath them.'
The early morning assault by IS captured part of Hassakeh, which has long been divided between Syrian Kurds and the military forces of President Bashar Assad.
The militants also hit Kobani, a northern town on Syria's border with Turkey that had become a symbol of Kurdish resistance against the Islamic State extremists. The Kurdish forces, backed by a campaign of U.S.-led airstrikes, drove the militants from Kobani and surrounding villages in January."
---Associated Press, June 25, 2015
U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates:
June 25, 2015 (Thursday)
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Census.gov: Press Release for June 25, 2015
"Millennials, or America’s youth born between 1982 and 2000, now number 83.1 million and represent more than one quarter of the nation’s population. Their size exceeds that of the 75.4 million baby boomers, according to new U.S. Census Bureau estimates released today. Overall, millennials are more diverse than the generations that preceded them, with 44.2 percent being part of a minority race or ethnic group (that is, a group other than non-Hispanic, single-race white).
These latest population estimates examine changes among groups by age, sex, race and Hispanic origin nationally, as well as in all states and counties, between April 1, 2010, and July 1, 2014.
Even more diverse than millennials are the youngest Americans: those younger than 5 years old. In 2014, this group became majority-minority for the first time, with 50.2 percent being part of a minority race or ethnic group.
Reflecting these younger age groups, the population as a whole has become more racially and ethnically diverse in just the last decade, with the percentage minority climbing from 32.9 percent in 2004 to 37.9 percent in 2014."
---Census Bureau Press Release, June 25, 2015
Washington Post: U.S. Children Under 5 Years of Age Now Minority-Majority
"William H. Frey, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of 'Diversity Explosion: How New Racial Demographics Are Remaking America,' said the report shows that the white population is growing older and shrinking in proportion to minority groups, with whites experiencing a higher number of deaths than births. Non-Hispanic, single-race whites were the only group for which deaths exceeded births between 2013 and 2014. Minority children younger than 5 now make up 50.2 percent of that population group, the report found.
'This year is the first time the 0 to 4 population is minority-majority,' Bolender said. It was shift long expected: In 2013, the rate was close enough — about 50-50 — that young minority children were on the cusp of outnumbering white children, but now the number has decisively moved into the majority, Bolender said.
---Washington Post, June 25, 2015
Time.com: More Evidence that the U.S. Population is Becoming Increasingly Diverse
"Minority births in the U.S. are far outpacing deaths as the white population remains all but stagnant, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday, driving the country closer to the point at which minorities outnumber whites.
The country’s minority population increased from 32.9% of U.S. residents in 2004 to 37.9% in 2014, according to the Census, and four states — Hawaii, California, New Mexico and Texas — along with Washington, D.C., are now majority-minority. Nevada, which has 48.5% minority population, is likely next.
Non-Hispanic deaths outpaced births in 2014 for a third year in a row, something University of New Hampshire demographer Ken Johnson says has never happened before in the U.S."
---Time, June 25, 2015
Aljazeera.com: Census Bureau Population Projections Show Minority Growth
Bloomberg: U.S. Under-5 Population Now Majority-Minority
William Frey of the Brookings Institution: Diversity and the U.S. Under-20 Population
National Journal: U.S. Millennials Now Outnumber Baby Boomers
"Millennials now make up a larger part of the population than boomers, according to the latest Census Bureau data.
People who were born between 1982 and 2000, classified as millennials, now make up more than one quarter of the population, at 83.1 million. This is compared with the 75.4 million baby boomers, generally defined as being born between 1946 and 1964.
Millennials are also more likely to be racially diverse, with 44.2 percent of them being part of a minority racial or ethnic group, which is reflective of the fact that the country now has a 37.9 percent minority population as of 2014.
And the diversity of young Americans overall is increasing, as more than half of Americans younger than age 5 are now part of a minority race or ethnic group."
---National Journal, June 25, 2015
PewResearch.org: U.S. Hispanic Population Reaches 55 Million
VOANews.com: Coverage of the Census Bureau's Latest Population Estimates
"The driving force behind the growth of minority population is natural increase. Currently, there are 3.6 minority births for every death. Among Hispanics, the ratio is even higher at 6.0 births per death. In contrast, the ratio of births to deaths is currently less than 1 (.97) among non-Hispanic whites according to Census Bureau estimates. There are many more births than deaths among minorities because the minority population (with the exception of Asians) is on average more than ten years younger than the non-Hispanic white population (median age 43). This results in more women of child-bearing age and fewer older adults at high risk of mortality. Some minority women, notably Hispanics, also have higher fertility rates than other groups. High birth to death ratios produce substantial population increase. Between 2013 and 2014, 63 percent of the minority population increase came from natural increase. Among Hispanics, natural increase accounted for 73 percent of the population increase. Though Hispanic immigration remains an important policy issue, it is natural increase that is now producing the majority of all Hispanic population increase."
---Kenneth M. Johnson, University of New Hampshire, June 2015
In the 6-3 U.S. Supreme Court Decision in King v. Burwell, Key Obamacare Subsidies Survive
June 25, 2015 (Thursday)
Above: HuffingtonPost.com composite photo of U.S. Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Chief Justice John Roberts, Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Meyer---the 6 SCOTUS justices who upheld the Obamacare subsidies that were challenged in King v. Burwell
Above: President Barack Obama; AP photo of President Barack Obama (flanked by Vice President Joe Biden) speaking in the Rose Garden of the White House in the wake of the favorable 6-3 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in King v. Burwell, Thursday, June 25, 2015
Associated Press: The U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Obamacare Subsidies, June 25, 2015
"The Supreme Court sent a clear message Thursday that President Barack Obama's health care overhaul is here to stay, rejecting a major challenge that would have imperiled the landmark law and health insurance for millions of Americans.
Whether you call it the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, or in the words of a dissenting justice, SCOTUScare, Obama's signature domestic achievement is, as the president himself put it, 'reality.'
The 6-3 ruling, which upheld financial aid to millions of low- and middle-income Americans to help pay for insurance premiums regardless of where they live, was the second major victory in three years for Obama in politically charged Supreme Court tests of the law. And it came on the same day the court gave him an unexpected victory on another subject, preserving a key tool the administration uses to fight housing bias."
---Associated Press, June 25, 2015
Reuters: The U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Key Provision of Obamacare, June 25, 2015
"The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a conservative legal challenge that could have doomed President Barack Obama's healthcare law, upholding nationwide tax subsidies crucial to his signature domestic policy achievement.
Obama strode into the White House Rose Garden after the ruling to declare that the law known as Obamacare is working, helping millions of Americans afford health insurance who otherwise would have none, and that it is 'here to stay.'
Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, wrote in the 6-3 ruling that Congress clearly intended for the tax subsidies that help millions of low- and moderate-income people afford private health insurance to be available in all 50 states."
---Reuters, June 25, 2015
New York Times: SCOTUS Upholds Obamacare Subsidies, June 25, 2015
"The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that President Obama’s health care law allows the federal government to provide nationwide tax subsidies to help poor and middle-class people buy health insurance, a sweeping vindication that endorsed the larger purpose of Mr. Obama’s signature legislative achievement.
The 6-to-3 ruling means that it is all but certain that the Affordable Care Act will survive after Mr. Obama leaves office in 2017, and has a greater chance of becoming an enduring part of America’s social safety net."
---New York Times, June 25, 2015
National Journal: A Really Good Day for President Barack Obama, June 25, 2015
"In a presidency filled with ceaseless wars, unfulfilled promises, and electoral disappointments, President Obama is having one of the best days he could ever hope for.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Affordable Care Act, securing a much-needed win for Obama's embattled health care law. Across the street just a few hours later, Congress was set to pass a worker-assistance bill that the president will sign along with fast-track authority, advancing a crucial piece of his trade agenda.
'They must be popping the champagne corks at the White House this morning,' mused former Clinton policy adviser and Brookings Institution senior fellow William Galston. 'And why not?'
Obamacare, the chief domestic priority of the president's first term, again received the green light from the Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision upholding the law's insurance subsidies nationwide.
And as the chief policy priority of his second term, Obama has pushed for fast-track authority on trade deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. After some initial stumbles and hurt feelings within his own party, the final pieces of the trade puzzle were poised to head to his desk Thursday afternoon. (In yet another win, albeit a less monumental one, the Supreme Court Thursday also upheld a central legal argument for the administration's efforts to fight housing discrimination.)"
---National Journal, June 25, 2015
Terrorist Attacks in Tunisia, France, and Kuwait
June 26, 2015 (Friday)
Above: CNN map highlighting Lyon, France, Sousse, Tunisia, and Kuwait City, Kuwait---the three sites hit with terrorist attacks on June 26, 2015
New York Times: Three Terrorist Attacks on Three Continents, June 26, 2015
"In a matter of hours and on three different continents, militants carried out attacks on Friday that killed scores of civilians, horrified populations and raised thorny questions about the evolving nature of international terrorism and what can be done to fight it.
On the surface, the attacks appeared to be linked only by timing.
In France, a man stormed an American-owned chemical plant, decapitated one person and apparently tried to blow up the facility. In Tunisia, a gunman drew an assault rifle from a beach umbrella and killed at least 38 people at a seaside resort. And in Kuwait, a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque during communal prayers, killing at least 25 Shiite worshipers."
---New York Times, June 26, 2015
Associated Press: Deadly Terrorists in France, Tunisia, and Kuwait, June 26, 2015
Reuters: Terrorist Attack in Tunisia, June 26, 2015
Reuters: Terrorist Attack in Kuwait, June 26, 2015
Reuters: Terrorist Attack in France, June 26, 2015
Obergefell v. Hodges: In a 5-4 Decision, the United States Supreme Court Declares Same-Sex Marriage to be Legal Nationwide
June 26, 2015 (Friday)
Above: HuffingtonPost.com composite photo of U.S. Supreme Court justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Anthony Kennedy, the five justices who constituted the majority that declared, in Obergefell v. Hodges, that same-sex marriage is legal nationwide in the United States
Above: AP photos of the crowd in front of the United States Supreme Court Building on Friday, June 26, 2015--the day that the nation's highest court, in its Obergefell v. Hodges decision, proclaimed same-sex marriage to be legal nationwide in the United States of America
Associated Press: U.S. Supreme Court Declares Same-Sex Marriage to be Legal Throughout the United States, June 26, 2015
"Same-sex couples won the right to marry nationwide Friday as a divided Supreme Court handed a crowning victory to the gay rights movement, setting off a jubilant cascade of long-delayed weddings in states where they had been forbidden."
---Associated Press, June 26, 2015
New York Times: SCOTUS Decision Recognizes Nationwide Right to Same-Sex Marriage, June 26, 2015
"In a long-sought victory for the gay rights movement, the Supreme Court ruled by a 5-to-4 vote on Friday that the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage."
---New York Times, June 26, 2015
Reuters: SCOTUS Decision Declares Same-Sex Marriage Legal Throughout the United States, June 26, 2015
"The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the U.S. Constitution provides same-sex couples the right to marry, handing a historic triumph to the American gay rights movement.
The court ruled 5-4 that the Constitution's guarantees of due process and equal protection under the law mean that states cannot ban same-sex marriages. With the landmark ruling, gay marriage becomes legal in all 50 states.
Immediately after the decision, same-sex couples in many of the states where gay marriage had been banned headed to county clerks' offices for marriage licenses as officials in several states said they would respect the ruling.
President Barack Obama, appearing in the White House Rose Garden, hailed the ruling as a milestone in American justice that arrived 'like a thunderbolt.'
'This ruling is a victory for America,' said Obama, the first sitting president to support gay marriage. 'This decision affirms what millions of Americans already believe in their hearts. When all Americans are treated as equal, we are all more free.'"
---Reuters, June 26, 2015
Time.com: Landmark U.S. Supreme Court Ruling Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage Nationwide, June 26, 2015
"The Supreme Court declared by a margin of 5 to 4 Friday that states must license same-sex marriages and recognize similar unions from other states, effectively ending a long legal battle over the marriage rights for gays and lesbians."
---Time, June 26, 2015
New York Times Editorial, June 26, 2015
"To the list of landmark Supreme Court decisions reaffirming the power and the scope of the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law — from Brown v. Board of Education to Loving v. Virginia to United States v. Windsor — we can now add Obergefell v. Hodges.
In a profound and inspiring opinion expanding human rights across America, and bridging the nation’s past to its present, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote: 'The right to marry is a fundamental right inherent in the liberty of the person, and under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment couples of the same-sex may not be deprived of that right and that liberty.'
As news of the ruling came out on Friday morning, opponents of same-sex marriage struggled to fathom how the country they thought they understood could so rapidly pass them by. But in fact the court’s decision in Obergefell fits comfortably within the arc of American legal history."
---The New York Times Editorial Board, June 26, 2015
Rod Dreher: The Obergefell Decision and Traditional Christianity, June 26, 2015
"No, the sky is not falling — not yet, anyway — but with the Supreme Court ruling constitutionalizing same-sex marriage, the ground under our feet has shifted tectonically.
It is hard to overstate the significance of the Obergefell decision — and the seriousness of the challenges it presents to orthodox Christians and other social conservatives. Voting Republican and other failed culture war strategies are not going to save us now.
Discerning the meaning of the present moment requires sobriety, precisely because its radicalism requires of conservatives a realistic sense of how weak our position is in post-Christian America."
----Rod Dreher, at Time, June 26, 2015
Above: Ann Coulter Twitter post, 5:08 pm (cst), June 26, 2015
Charleston Church Massacre: President Obama Delivers Eulogy for State Senator Clementa Pinckney
June 26, 2015 (Friday)
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Time.com: President Obama Delivers Stirring Eulogy for Clementa Pinckney, June 26, 2015
"President Obama delivered a stirring eulogy and meditation on the nature of grace at the funeral of Rev. Clementa Pinckney Friday, one week after the pastor and eight others were gunned down in a church.
For a little over 30 minutes, Obama traded his typical even tone for a more rousing preacherly style, bringing the crowd of thousands at College of Charleston’s TD Arena, to its feet again and again. At one point, he even sang 'Amazing Grace,' a hymn written by a reformed slave-trader who converted to Christianity.
Though the touchstone of his remarks was Pinckney, Obama blended personal remembrances with calls for political renewal and a recurring theological discussion of grace, evoking the very kinds of sermons an AME pastor might give."
---Time, June 26, 2015
HuffingtonPost.com: President Obama Delivers Eulogy for Senator Clementa Pinckney, June 26, 2015
Associated Press: President Obama Eulogizes Rev. Clementa Pinckney, June 26, 2015
"President Barack Obama used his eulogy for a slain pastor to deliver an unvarnished lecture on America's racial history Friday, and then boldly sang 'Amazing Grace,' a spiritual meant to summon hope in the darkest of times.
Obama also called for gun control and efforts to eliminate poverty and job discrimination, and said the Confederate battle flag — long a symbol of Southern pride — must be removed from places of honor."
---Associated Press, June 26, 2015
Above: President Barack Obama; AP photo of The White House lit up with rainbow colors hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rendered its decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, the decision that legalized same-sex marriage, Friday, June 26, 2015
The New Yorker: "10 Days in June" by David Remnick
Politico: Born Again Obama
Scott Pelley of CBS: An Amazing Week
Washington Post: President Obama's Amazing Day
"On Friday morning, President Obama stood in the Rose Garden exalting the 'thunderbolt' of justice that had come from the Supreme Court, which guaranteed the right of marriage to gay and lesbian couples after many spent decades in often lonely, perilous activism.
About five hours later, leaning into the microphone at the memorial for the late South Carolina state senator and pastor Clementa Pinckney, Obama sang alone the opening lines of 'Amazing Grace,' before a crowd of nearly 6,000 rose to its feet to join him in an extraordinary ending to a eulogy that lamented racial hatred but drew on what Obama called the grace of God to predict its eventual defeat.
Rarely has a single day so completely encapsulated the emotional peaks and troughs of the presidency of Barack Obama. He sought to draw the moments together with a phrase he has employed in the past, using variations to argue that the creation of a 'more perfect union' sometimes happens in unexpected ways with unexpected speed."
---Washington Post, June 26, 2015
America, Not United
Culture War: Woman Temporarily Removes Confederate Flag from Statehouse Grounds in Columbia, South Carolina
June 27, 2015 (Saturday)
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Associated Press: Woman in Columbia, South Carolina Temporarily Removes Confederate Flag at Statehouse Grounds, June 27, 2015
"The Confederate flag was temporarily removed from the front of the South Carolina Statehouse on Saturday when a woman climbed the flagpole and — despite calls by police to get down — removed the banner.
Bree Newsome, 30, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was about halfway up the more than 30-foot steel flagpole just after dawn Saturday when officers of the South Carolina Bureau of Protective Services told her to get down. Instead, she continued climbing to the top and removed the banner.
She and a man who had climbed over a four-foot wrought-iron fence to get to the flag were arrested.
The flag, which is protected by state law, was raised about 45 minutes later. Flag supporters planned a rally at the monument later Saturday."
---Associated Press, June 27, 2015
Culture War: A Rally in Alabama in Support of the Confederate Flag
June 27, 2015 (Saturday)
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AL.com: A Rally in Alabama in Support of the Confederate Flag, June 27, 2015
"Confederate flag supporters today gathered at the the state Capitol to voice their outrage at Gov. Robert Bentley's decision to remove Civil War flags from the statehouse grounds.
The crowd of about 300 -- some wearing Confederate uniforms -- waved the flag and sang a chorus of 'I Wish I Was in Dixie.'
Event organizer Mike Williams told the Associated Press he encourages anyone organizing similar events in southern states to keep rallies 'about heritage and not hate.'
'We're here to protest Gov. Bentley taking our flag off the monument,' said Dan Williams of Ashville."
---AL.com, June 27, 2015
WKRG.com: Majority of Alabamians Wants to Keep Flying the Confederate Flag
"An exclusive News-5 Strategy Poll shows 54-percent of Alabamians say let the flag fly at the capitol. 46-percent support the Governor taking it down."
---WKRG.com, June 26, 2015
"The news-5/Strategy Poll shows a sharp racial divide on the issue. Only 17-percent of blacks say fly the flag, compared to 74-percent of white Alabamians."
---WKRG.com, June 26, 2015
New York Times: 2015 a Political Pivot to the Left?
"A cascade of events suggests that 2015 could be remembered as a Liberal Spring: the moment when deeply divisive and consuming questions of race, sexuality and broadened access to health care were settled in quick succession, and social tolerance was cemented as a cornerstone of American public life.
Yet what appears, in headlines and celebrations across the country, to represent an unalloyed victory for Democrats, in which lawmakers and judges alike seemed to give in to the leftward shift of public opinion, may contain an opening for the Republican Party to move beyond losing battles and seemingly lost causes.
Conservatives have, in short order, endured a series of setbacks on ideas that, for some on the right, are definitional: that marriage is between a man and a woman, that Southern heritage and its symbols are to be unambivalently revered and that the federal government should play a limited role in the lives of Americans.
Remarkably, some of these verities have been challenged not by liberals but by figures from the right.
The past week and the month that preceded it have been nothing short of a rout in the culture wars. Bruce Jenner, the famed Olympian, became Caitlyn Jenner in the most prominent moment yet for transgender people. The killings of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, S.C., at once rendered the Confederate battle flag unsuitable for government-sanctioned display. And Friday’s legalization of same-sex marriage nationwide elevated a community that had been consigned to the shadows for centuries of American life.
But even as conservatives appear under siege, some Republicans predict that this moment will be remembered as an effective wiping of the slate before the nation begins focusing in earnest on the presidential race."
---Jonathan Martin, The New York Times, June 27, 2015
Amazing Change
Washington Post: The GOP and a Quickly Evolving America, June 27, 2015
"Across the cultural landscape, the national consensus is evolving rapidly, epitomized by this year’s convulsions of celebrity, social issues and politics — including the acceptance of Caitlyn Jenner’s gender identity, Pope Francis’s climate-change decree and the widespread shunning of the Confederate flag.
Then came Friday’s landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage. As rainbow colors bathed the White House and other landmarks in celebration, the entire field of Republican presidential candidates condemned the ruling."
---Washington Post, June 27, 2015
SpaceX Rocket Explodes En Route to the International Space Station
June 28, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: AP photo of an unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on June 28, 2015; AP photo of an unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket disintegrating while en route to the International Space Station, Sunday, June 28, 2015
Associated Press: Unmanned SpaceX Rocket Explodes En Route to the International Space Station, June 28, 2015
"An unmanned SpaceX rocket carrying supplies and a first-of-its-kind docking port to the International Space Station broke apart Sunday shortly after liftoff. It was a severe blow to NASA, still reeling from previous failed shipments.
The accident happened about 2 1/2 minutes into the flight from Cape Canaveral, Florida. A billowing white cloud emerged in the sky, growing bigger and bigger, then fiery plumes shot out of where the rocket was supposed to be, and pieces could be seen falling into the Atlantic. More than 5,200 pounds of space station cargo were on board, including the first docking port designed for future commercial crew capsules."
---Associated Press, June 28, 2015
Conservative Reactions to Obergefell: Roy Moore and Others Take to the Pulpit
June 28, 2015 (Sunday)
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Associated Press: Conservative Reactions on the Sunday After the Obergefell Decision, June 28, 2015
"At First Baptist Dallas, where the pulpit was adorned Sunday with red, white and blue bunting to honor the Fourth of July, the pastor called the Supreme Court's gay marriage ruling 'an affront in the face of Almighty God.'
The iconic rainbow colors that bathed the White House Friday night after the court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide represent 'depravity, degradation and what the Bible calls sexual perversion,' the Rev. Robert Jeffress said.
'But we are not discouraged,' Jeffress said. 'We are not going to be silenced. This is a great opportunity for our church to share the truth and love of Jesus Christ and we are going to do it.'
On the first Sunday after the high court ruling, theological conservatives grappled with their new status as what the Southern Baptists call 'a moral minority' on marriage. Ministers were defiant about publicly upholding their views, and warned church members to prepare themselves for a rough time ahead.
'Welcome to the new world. It's just changed for you Christians. You are going to be persecuted,' Alabama's Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore said from the pulpit at the Kimberly Church of God, in Kimberly, Ala.
Moore, who fought a losing battle to keep a Ten Commandments monument he erected inside Alabama's state judicial building, said the decision went against the laws of nature."
---Associated Press, June 28, 2015
Greece Announces Emergency Banking Policies as Financial Crisis Builds
June 28, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: Prime Minister of Greece Alexis Tsipras; Map of Greece
New York Times: Greece Announces Emergency Banking Measures, June 28, 2015
"Greece will keep its banks closed on Monday and place restrictions on the withdrawal and transfer of money, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said in a televised address on Sunday night, as Athens tries to avert a financial collapse.
The government’s decision to close banks temporarily and impose other so-called capital controls — and to keep the stock market closed on Monday — came hours after the European Central Bank said it would not expand an emergency loan program that has been propping up Greek banks in recent weeks while the government was trying to reach a new debt deal with international creditors.
The debt negotiations broke down over the weekend after Mr. Tsipras said he would let the Greek people decide whether to accept the creditors’ latest offer. That referendum vote is to be held next Sunday, after the current bailout program will have expired.
Mr. Tsipras in his televised address criticized the European Central Bank for declining to increase its emergency loans to Greek banks."
---New York Times, June 28, 2015
The Greek Financial Crisis Continues
June 29, 2015 (Monday)
Above: AP photo of several elderly people outside a closed bank in Thessaloniki, Greece on June 29, 2015
Above: Map of Greece
Associated Press: The Greek Financial Crisis Continues, June 29, 2015
"Anxious pensioners swarmed closed bank branches Monday and long lines snaked outside ATMs as Greeks endured the first day of serious controls on their daily economic lives ahead of a July 5 referendum that could determine whether the country has to ditch the euro currency and return to the drachma.
As strict capital controls took root following Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' surprise weekend decision to call a referendum on international creditors' latest economic proposals, Greece's population tried to fathom the sheer scale of the impact on their day-to-day existence.
Following a breakdown in talks between Greece and its creditors, the country is in the midst of the one of the most acute financial crises seen anywhere in the world in years. It's running out of time to get the money it needs to stave off bankruptcy.
That has stoked fears of a crippling bank run, a messy Greek debt default and an exit from the euro. As a result, the country's government imposed strict capital controls, none more onerous than a daily allowance of a measly 60 euros ($67) at the ATM."
---Associated Press, June 29, 2015
Roy Moore Says Alabama Probate Judges Don't Have to Issue Marriage Licenses Immediately for Same-Sex Couples
June 29, 2015 (Monday)
Above: AL.com photo of Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore in Montgomery, Alabama, Monday, June 29, 2015
AL.com: Roy Moore Says Alabama Probate Judges Don't Have to Issue Marriage Licenses Immediately for Same-Sex Couples, June 29, 2015
"At first today, Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore said a state supreme court order effectively kept probate judges from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples for 25 days.
Moore, however, later backtracked.
'What the order means is that within that 25-day period no (probate judge) has to issue a marriage license to a same sex couple,' Moore said.
Moore said that if he implied that the order prohibited the issuing of marriage license to same-sex couples then he misspoke."
---AL.com, June 29, 2015
New York Times: Additional Parts of the South in Retreat on Same-Sex Marriage, June 29, 2015
"The country’s last major pockets of resistance to same-sex marriage were rapidly shrinking on Monday as officials in states across the South, citing the rule of law, softened their defiance and began offering marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples.
Here in a suburb of New Orleans, Alesia LeBoeuf’s hands were shaking moments after she and her partner, Celeste Autin, became the first same-sex couple to receive a marriage license in Louisiana.
'I’m just speechless,' Ms. LeBoeuf said. 'I never thought I’d see the day.'
Louisiana was the last holdout, the only state where no same-sex licenses were issued on Friday after the Supreme Court ruled that gay men and lesbians had a constitutional right to marry."
---New York Times, June 29, 2015
NBC Fires GOP Presidential Candidate Donald Trump for his Degrading Comments About Mexican Immigrants
June 29, 2015 (Monday)
Above: AP photo of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Chicago, Illinois, June 29, 2015
Associated Press: NBC Fires Donald Trump, June 29, 2015
"NBC said Monday that it is ending its business relationship with mogul and GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump because of comments he made about Mexican immigrants during the announcement of his campaign.
The network said it would no longer air the annual Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants, which had been a joint venture between the company and Trump. Miss USA has aired on NBC since 2003, and this year's edition was set for July 12."
---Associated Press, June 29, 2015
The Dow Loses 350 Points
June 29, 2015 (Monday)
Above: Reuters chart showing the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing 350 points and closing at 17,596 on June 29, 2015
Small Clash in Columbia, South Carolina Over the Confederate Battle Flag
June 29, 2015 (Monday)
TheState.com: A Clash Over the Confederate Flag, June 29, 2015
"An Irmo man was arrested after a fight broke out over the Confederate flag in front of the State House Monday night, officials say.
Nicholas Thompson, 25, was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after confronting a crowd protesting the Confederate flag, South Carolina Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Sherri Iacobelli said in a statement released Monday night.
The department’s Bureau of Protective Services reported that around 7:15 p.m. Monday, about 15 vehicles with pro-flag supporters pulled up in front of the State House and stopped in the middle of Gervais Street. About eight to 10 people then got out of the vehicles and began to engage in an altercation with a crowd of about 30 gathered near the Confederate Memorial to protest the flag, Iacobelli said.
BPS and additional law enforcement officers were able to contain the situation. The SC Highway Patrol, University of South Carolina Police and Columbia Police Department responded to the scene as well with about 50 officers in all."
---The State, June 29, 2015
CBS News: A Clash in South Carolina Over the Confederate Flag
GOP Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Tweets Anti-Immigrant Sentiment Against Mexico
June 30, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above: Donald J. Trump Twitter post, 7:35 am (cst), June 30, 2015
Above: :Donald J. Trump Twitter post, 7:57 am (cst), June 30, 2015
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie Announces his Presidential Candidacy
June 30, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above: AP photo of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie during his presidential candidacy announcement event in Livingston, New Jersey, Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Associated Press: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie Announces his Presidential Candidacy, June 30, 2015
"A tough-talking New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie launched his 2016 campaign for president Tuesday with a promise to tell voters the truth even if it makes them cringe.
The Republican governor, a one-time GOP favorite who faded and now tries to climb back, lashed out at 'bickering leaders' from both political parties in a kickoff rally in the gymnasium of his old high school. And in his trademark blunt style, he told voters — and warned Republican rivals — that he's ready to be aggressive in the 2016 contest."
---Associated Press, June 30, 2015
Greece Fails to Make a 1.6 Billion Euros Payment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
June 30, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above: Map of Greece
Associated Press: Greece Fails to Make Payment Owed to IMF
"Greece slipped deeper into its financial abyss after the bailout program it has relied on for five years expired at midnight Tuesday and the country failed to repay a loan due to the International Monetary Fund.
With its failure to repay the roughly 1.6 billion euros ($1.8 billion) to the IMF, Greece became the first developed country to fall into arrears on payments to the fund. The last country to do so was Zimbabwe in 2001.
After Greece made a last-ditch effort to extend its bailout, eurozone finance ministers decided in a teleconference late Tuesday that there was no way they could reach a deal before the deadline."
---Associated Press, June 30, 2015
New York Times: Greece Fails to Make 1.6 Billion Euros Payment to the IMF
"The International Monetary Fund said shortly after midnight Wednesday that Greece had missed a crucial debt payment to the fund.
'We have informed our executive board that Greece is now in arrears and can only receive I.M.F. financing once the arrears are cleared,' said Gerry Rice, a spokesman for the fund.
Greece is not technically in default, but missing the payment is yet another an unmistakable warning that the country will probably be unable to meet its other obligations in coming weeks, to its bond holders and to the European Central Bank. That may might make the European Central Bank, one of its principal creditors, less willing to continue emergency loans that have been propping up Greek banks for the past several months."
---New York Times, June 30, 2015
July 2015